


Promises

by tiredofthisbs



Series: Twists of fate [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Allura is a wholesome being whom I love with my very heart, Altean Keith (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), F/F, F/M, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Human Keith (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Multi, Other, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Racism, Season/Series 01, Secret Relationship, red paladin shiro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-01-23 20:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21326209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredofthisbs/pseuds/tiredofthisbs
Summary: This is the time to fight, to live, and unfortunately for some, die.-DISCONTINUED/ON A VERY LONG HIATUS-
Relationships: Alfor/Coran (Voltron), Allura/Lance (Voltron), Haggar/Zarkon (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Twists of fate [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1400230
Comments: 29
Kudos: 88





	1. The Rise of Voltron, part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I said I'd be back before Christmas, did I not? I have a whole lot of unfinished stuff and I haven't even watched through the first season yet (oh no) but I couldn't resist putting this up way before the initial plan. I'm screwing myself over just to bring this nibble of what is coming. 
> 
> To new readers: Please please please do read the first part before continuing on to this one. You will be a bit confused if not. Thank you!

Really, sneaking up on that Pidge guy was too easy. He was so concentrated on whatever he was tapping onto his… stuff, that he didn’t hear Lance’s soft footsteps nor Hunk’s crawling. 

“You come up here to rock out?” 

Pidge screams, Lance letting go of his hold on the younger boy’s earphone. He’ll have to inform Pidge about his unhealthy concentration problems - what if a bear would sneak up on him without the other even knowing? Yeah. Exactly. Death.

Pidge mumbles something about looking at the stars, but Lance elects to ignore it in favor of eyeing the tech around him. “Where’d you get this stuff?” he asks, raising his eyebrows in suspicion. “It doesn’t look like garrison tech.”

“I built it”, is Pidge’s smirked answer. 

“You built all of this?” Hunk wonders, moving slowly forward, as if to press his finger against the machine.

“Stop it!” Pidge frowns, slapping Hunk’s hand away. Then he goes on to say something about how far it can scan. To the edge of the solar system. The edge…

“That right? All the way to Kerberos?” 

It’s obviously the thing you need to ask first, no doubts. Lance raises an eyebrow at Pidge, who slumps and grumbles. 

“You go ballistic every time it’s brought up! What’s your deal?” Lance asks, hoping to finally find an answer to his endless wondering about Pidge’s weird acting lately. Well, more like always, but lately it's been more obvious than ever. 

But he ignores Lance’s question in favor of smacking Hunk’s hand away again. 

“Look Pidge, if we’re gonna bond as a team, there should be no secrets between us!” he says, trying to get the boy to reveal something, anything, Lance can use to get out even more. Hunk glances at Lance, clearly aware of what he’s trying to do, but there’s no anger in his eyes. Hunk does have his own experience with Lance’s questions, all the way from kindergarten where they first met. No secrets whatsoever. He know what a mother hen Lance tends to be sometimes.

“Fine”, Pidge mumbles and Lance feels triumphant. “The world as we know it is about to change. The Kerberos mission wasn’t lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake-”Pidge begins, before stopping to shoo Hunk off again.

“So”, Pidge continues, taking a deep breath. “I’ve been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter.”

“Whoa, what! Aliens?” Hunk asks, immediately going with the worst possible outcome.

Lance decides to go for a more… reasonable answer: “Okay. So, you’re insane.”

“I’m serious!” is Pidge’s answer, his voice without a trace of un-seriousness. “They keep repeating one word. Voltron.”

Pidge shows Lance and Hunk a drawing of some old scifi robot thingy with a sword and other random stuff, yet Lance is still not convinced. Pidge is still, possibly, insane. 

“And tonight, it’s going crazier than I’ve ever heard it”, finishing off the sentence with a threatening tone. 

Lance barely has time to ask his next question (“How crazy?”) when the alarm starts to scream. Iverson’s voice starts blasting through the PA so loud that even the three of them on the rooftop can hear it.

“Attention students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice.”

“What’s going on?” Hunks softly asks, although sounding a bit fearful. Like usual.

Then they all notice it, Hunk pointing to it first, but Lance doesn’t hear what he’s saying. His ears are ringing. 

This is it. It’s the end of the world. He'll never get to hug his mama again!

Pidge’s yelp “It’s a ship!” is what eventually brings Lance back to the living world. He grabs the binoculars Pidge is holding to see it better.

“Holy crow!” he exclaims. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. That is not one of ours”, Lance mutters, wondering about the red paint job of the ship. The Garrison’s ships are always white and, if Lance remembers correctly, no other country in the world has red ships anyway. So what… damn it, Pidge was right. 

“No… it’s one of theirs.” 

They watch in silence as the ship, at first approaching at a high speed, now slows down at a pace no human machine can, landing somewhere in the horizon. 

And at that moment, the garrison vehicles stir, all whooshing out of the grounds towards the landing spot.

“We’ve got to see that ship!” Pidge exclaims, a grin on his face. Lance runs after him, calling Hunk after them. He’s not about to miss this!

It takes them a while to get there, Lance's heart hammering in his chest and his legs threatening to give out under him the entire run there, but when they do get there they see a few things.

Firstly, the ship has landed safely, completely unscratched and in perfect position. Secondly, said ship is surrounded by all of the previous garrison vehicles, Iverson yelling something into a megaphone along the lines of: “Come out of the ship with your hands in the air and without weapons! We don't want to fight!”

“Okay, cool, we’ve seen it. Now, let’s go back to the barracks!” Hunk whispers. 

“No way dude. Aliens, Hunk. Aliens!” Lance answers, leaning just a bit more forward to get a better look. 

“Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. What if they’re killer aliens!” Hunk whispers more urgently. “I do not want to be here when all of those teachers are viciously murdered!” 

Lance is about to answer when Pidge shushes them both, pointing to the ship. 

There’s a swoosh as it’s back door opens, revealing a darkly-lit entry of some kind. The door lowering sends sand flying everywhere and suddenly Lance is reminded of like every sci fi movie ever he’s watched. The next thing he knows some kind of space octopus will walk out and garble something in broken english. 

What comes out instead is two… men. Two humans. Lance grabs the binoculars. 

“That’s Shiro! The pilot of the Kerberos mission!” Lance squeals in surprise, immediately recognizing the man. “He’s, like, my hero!” 

“I guess he’s not dead in space after all”, Hunk mumbles. 

“Where’s the rest of his crew?” Pidge asks, sounding deflated. 

The three of them follow intently as Iverson talks to the two men through a megaphone, the other one someone Lance doesn’t recognize. 

“Shiro?” Iverson asks, sounding surprised. Shiro nods. “You’re… alive. How!?” Iverson asks, sounding even more surprised. 

“It’s a long story!” Shiro yells back. “Iverson, they’re coming!” Shiro yells, his voice quivering. The other guy, who Lance looks at a bit more carefully now and notices has long black hair and an outfit way too casual for a situation like this, places a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Aliens, they’re coming!” 

Iverson bristles up. “Like the one next to you?” he asks and the other guy twitches. 

“My name’s Keith!” The long haired one yells, his english great. No alien garble. Is this dude even an alien in the first place? “I want no harm! Unlike them!”

“Who’s them?” Iverson yells and really, Lance is getting tired of listening to them yelling at each other. This conversation can be spoken in ‘inside’ voices just as easily, if Iverson would just walk closer. But then, on the other hand, the three of them wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation otherwise. 

“The galra”, both Keith and Shiro answer. 

What kind of alien name is Keith, anyway? Lance would’ve expected something like Zelo or Zeroth or something. But no. It’s a guy named Keith who, frankly, looks very human. 

A very hot human… -no. We are not going there today. Nope. No no no no.

During Lance’s brief bisexual panic Iverson and Shiro yell at each other some more, before the two seem to stand in a impasse. 

“Listen. Just come with us to the garrison so we can get you and your friend checked out. Then we can see what we can do about that lion thing!” Iverson suggests. 

Shiro has a hushed conversation with Keith, before turning to Iverson.

“No.”

“You have no choice, and you know it Shiro. You either come with us willingly or we’re going to have to force you”, Iverson speaks, even though a bit more personally than what should be used in situations like these. There is something desperate in his tone. Lance can see the logic behind trying to convince Shiro with a friendly approach first, though. Like a good cop bad cop except on a singular person.

“Look, we don’t have time for security detail and negotiations!” Shiro yells. “We need to be back out there as soon as possible!” 

“Shiro you know the rules as well as I do!” Iverson yells, holding out his arm as if for Shiro to grab on. “This is your last chance!” 

Neither of the two men surrounded move a muscle. 

The officers move. Lance wonders, for a second, how two guys can stand up against an endless trained garrison teachers. Lucky for him, he gets his answer right away. 

Keith pulls a knife from his belt, moving to stand back to back with Shiro, who crouches down. The rest of it is like a beautifully orchestrated dance, Shiro and Keith moving together in smooth motions, many of them clearly meant for swift and deadly attacks, even though Shiro and Keith seem to be going easy on the officers, only knocking them out with minimal injury. Although Keith does seem to be doing a lot more damage in general, possibly accidentally breaking bones.

It doesn’t take long for there to be only two men standing, both Shiro and Keith huffing out air in short breaths. 

Keith and Shiro look like they are unsure of what to do next, before they start to slowly haul the knocked out officers into the garrison vehicles, stuffing them into backseats and locking the doors. Lance watches in awe as Keith easily lifts three grown men and pushes them inside without seemingly much trouble.

“We gotta go check it out”, Pidge mumbles, gathering his stuff. 

“Woah woah woah. Lemme get this straight”, Hunk asks, bewildered. “You want to go over there-”, he says, pointing to the two men trapping the last officers “With two guys who literally just beat all of our teachers up”, -Pidge nods seriously- “and what. Talk to them?” 

“I wanna know about the rest of the crew. About aliens. The galra! Voltron!” Pidge exclaims, already sliding downhill. “You don’t have to come with me!” he yelps.

“We’re going”, Lance says, with his you-have-no-other-options voice that he learnt from his mom. “C’mon Hunk.” 

Keith, the man turning more and more freaky every second, hears the three of them sliding downhill and says something to Shiro, pointing at them. The two men lock the last of the doors before moving to stand side by side, waiting for them. There’s something curious in Shiro’s body language, but Keith is clearly suspicious, his hand hovering over his belt, where Lance remembers the knife being hidden. 

When Lance, Hunk and Pidge finally get close enough to them Lance has a chance to eye Keith more thoroughly. 

Keith has black hair and bangs, the bangs hiding behind them a set of sharp eyes, colored something like gray? Purple? Is that even possible? 

“Where did you kids come from?” Shiro asks, pulling his hands into a very dad-like pose, crossing them over each other.

“Hey!” Lance says offended. “We’re not that small!” 

Shiro looks at Pidge, unimpressed, but something sparks in his eyes. Like recognition. No, there's no way Shiro knows some Pidge Gunderson who enrolled after Shiro was already gone. Nu-huh.

“Well, let’s just agree that you never saw anything. You three should return to the barracks before the remaining staff notices you were gone in the first place.” Shiro tries, using a command-y voice Lance can remember hearing within his first few weeks of studying with the upperclassmen, Shiro being one of them. 

“How about you tell us what’s going on instead?” Lance shoots back, narrowing his eyes. 

“We don’t have time for this-”, Shiro frowns, moving to go back to their ship, but stops when he notices Keith’s expression. 

“Keith?” 

The black haired man is staring straight ahead, unseeing, the only thing moving being his hair, flowing in the wind. There’s a sheen to his eyes and his gaze is unfocused, staring somewhere to Lance's right like he’s somewhere else entirely.

“Keith?” Shiro asks again, frowning. So this is clearly not usual behavior.

Shiro moves his hand and shakes it in front of Keith’s face. The man flinches and seemingly returns to his body, his fingers twitching suspiciously. Keith finally lowers his hand away from his knife, the threat seemingly over.

“You okay? What’s going on?” Shiro immediately questions, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder, moving closer.

“It’s one of them.” Keith answers, short. His voice sounds still great, even when he’s not yelling. Good. 

“Are you serious? They’re kids!” Shiro hisses after a momentary confusion. 

Keith shakes his head. “I don’t have a say in who it is”, then he turns his sour expression into something that must mean something between the two men but rings no bell in Lance's. “Look, I don’t like it either, but it’s not like I can choose the pilot myself. Besides”, now Keith points to hem. “they’ll grow, right?”

Shiro sighs but turns back around to face Lance, Hunk and Pidge, all three of them starting to fall further and further behind on what’s going on. 

“We’re going to have to get out of here before the teachers wake up”, and, like a sign, someone bangs a car door closeby. “So you three are going to have to come with us if you want your questions answered.”

“Where are we going?” Pidge asks, frowning. 

Shiro turns to look at Keith who in turn looks behind him, at the open desert spreading out around them. 

“Somewhere over there. I can sense it.” 

Shiro nods seriously and turns around, holding out his arm like Iverson had done just moments ago. 

“Looks like you’re with us, then.”


	2. The Rise of Voltron, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who knows, maybe he’ll never get a lion. Maybe he’s just one small part of the equation, just there to bring the others together, never to be given a lion. He is, after all, a galra. Why would the lions trust one to pilot them after what happened with Zarkon? He glances around himself again, noting that there is five of them. 
> 
> Five paladins. 
> 
> Keith shakes his head and follows Lance into the lion.

Pidge looks around the ship, her brain doing triple flips about the alien technology. How does everything work? What is it made of? Who made it? What is it powered by?

The ship is pretty good sized, consisting of a communal area with a small kitchen, living area and a bed. The cockpit is separated from the living space by a door, which Keith disappears into, giving Pidge a glance into the cockpit lit up by small electronic screens. Pidge wants to follow, but sees it fit not to. She isn’t sure if Keith would appreciate her questions. 

There are a few doors left, one leading to what Pidge figures would be a bathroom and the other maybe to a closet or a storage of some kind. 

Shiro sighs when Lance topples on the couch, groaning. Hunk follows suit, nervously sitting on the edge of the furniture. Pidge doesn’t sit. 

“So, I’m sure you have a lot of questions”, Shiro begins, pouting slightly, his arms crossed over his chest. Pidge doesn’t remember him very clearly, seeing as her previous meetings with Shiro had been when he’d come over to have dinner at the Holt's household like twice. Both of those times she’d been to focused on spending the last moments with her brother and father. 

Pidge’s eyes sting when she thinks about them so she stops, instead focusing on Shiro. 

  
“So aliens are real?” Lance asks, breaking the ice. 

“Very”, Shiro confirms, sighing, before moving his arm, displaying the prosthetic. Pidge doesn’t stop herself from moving closer, inspecting the tech with wide eyes and taking hold of her glasses. “This prosthetic is far above anything Earth’s technology can reach”, Pidge mumbles, poking the arm with her front finger. “It’s amazing.” 

Shiro’s expression darkens momently, before he turns to neutrality again. “I don’t know where I’d be without it.”

“So where’d you get it?” Lance asks, looking at Shiro from the couch. “I don’t think that they just hand out prosthetics. And what about your arm? What happened to it?” 

Now Shiro’s gaze truly darkens and he doesn’t bother to fight it. 

“I’m gonna need to tell you the whole story. Hold on”, Shiro says and turns to the cockpit. “Where are we going Keith?” 

Keith is silent for a moment, before his head peeks out from behind the pilot’s chair: “I’m not sure”, he says, biting his lip. “I feel something, so I’m just going by my instincts for now. I think you have time.”

Shiro nods, before turning to the three cadets. 

  
“I don’t know what the Garrison told you about us”, Shiro begins, frowning even deeper. “But we were captured by aliens. The people we were captured by are called galra, the race right now most dominant in the universe.”

“You said something about them attacking earlier”, Hunk quietly says, fumbling with his hands. “Are they evil or something?” 

Shiro hesitates, tilts his head and sighs. “I suppose you would view them as such, but they really aren’t evil in that black and white sense you think. The galra have taken over most of the known universe and are ruled by Zarkon”, and this is where Shiro grits his teeth, his eyes glinting “who is hellbent on taking over the universe and finding a weapon called Voltron. Keith could tell you more about that, though”, Shiro explains and glances back to the cockpit before continuing. “When I was captured I was put into something called the Arena. It’s a place where outlaws and galra prisoners are held. The prisoners are forced to participate in bloody battles for the galra’s enjoyment.”

“Sounds kinda evil to me”, Lance points out, sounding sceptical.

  
“I know it does”, Shiro sighs. “And it is. But not all galra are like that. Zarkon also has his reasons for taking over the universe, but I’d rather not talk about that. Besides, Keith knows a lot more about that than I do.” 

“Who even is he?” Lance groans. “I don’t remember him being in the Kerberos crew.” 

Mentions of the rest of the crew make Pidge bite her lip, but she keeps her mouth shut for now, wanting to learn more about how Shiro ended up here. The guy might reveal something about her family without her having to ask about it, risking her cover. 

“Keith is...”, Shiro begins but pauses, seeming to stop to think for a second. The silence seems to catch Keith’s attention, who joins in on the conversation from the cockpit. 

“You can tell them about me, Shiro”, Keith says, sighing. “They’ll find out eventually.”

Shiro nods, even though there’s no way Keith sees the movement, and continues: “I met Keith in the Arena. He was in the same bunk room as I. Keith’s half human.”

“Half human? What’s the other half?” Hunk asks, tilting his head. 

Shiro doesn’t have to answer, his expression telling the three of them what they want to know. They all explode into an onslaught of questions, Shiro looking slightly annoyed. 

In the end they are silenced by Keith coming in from the cockpit, giving Pidge a chance to take a real good look at the man standing before them. 

  
Keith looks like an average human, maybe about the same age as Shiro. He’s muscular and healthy, not owning any kind of physical dysfunctions nor discoloration or some kind of other alien traits. He looks like an average bloke. 

Well, maybe apart from his eyes. Pidge has never seen purple eyes before. 

“I don’t ‘look galra’ because I can change my appearance. And before you ask, no, that is not a galran trait.”

For a second all three of them are still and silent, all looking at Keith with growing pressure. Keith sighs. 

  
“Apparently this ‘garrison’ or whatever hasn’t been very honest with you humans. Or they’re stupid or naive, and I don’t know which one is worse. My mother landed on Earth some years ago, met my father, had me and eventually had to leave and took me with her due to me, originally, not posing any human traits”, Keith explains, Pidge realizing that it’s probably very his style, such blunt communication. It draws her to the man, appreciating his sincerity.

He could be the greatest liar she’s ever seen, too, but somehow Pidge doubts that.

“Why was your mother on Earth?” Hunk asks, cautious. “To take it over?” 

Keith shakes his head, chuckling. “My mother is part of an organization called the Blade of Marmora. So am I. The Blade is a galran organization, fighting against Zarkon”, he explains and shrugs. “We’ve been working against Zarkon for thousands of years, but there’s so much only a small group like us can do. But what we have been keeping Zarkon from are the Lions of Voltron.”

Pidge’s eyebrows shoot up and she knows Lance and Hunk’s are doing the same. 

“One of Voltron’s parts, a robot, is here, on Earth, and my mother was here to protect its location from the galra.”

For a moment the ship is plunged into a thoughtful silence. Keith and Shiro seem to be having some kind of a silent conversation, Shiro seeming reluctant and Keith shooting a glare at him. 

“So what’s Voltron?” 

Keith takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, a smile splaying over his lips. Pidge finally, with Keith and Shiro standing side by side and this close, realizes that the scars over the bridges of their noses match. 

“Voltron”, Keith begins, his voice dreamy, filled with wonder “is the greatest weapon in the entire universe. Voltron is a mechanical robot, made up of five ‘lions’. These robots made of a powerful inter-reality stone. Together, these five robots form what is actually Voltron, a robot. The machine was built ten thousand years ago, by a great king of a race that has been now destroyed by the galra in the first great war.” 

“Why would one of these lions be on Earth?” Pidge asks, not entirely sure if she should believe Keith or deem him as crazy.

Keith’s expression turns sour and he opens his eyes. “It’s a long story. To simplify it, Zarkon betrayed the other four paladins and started a war. In the end, Alfor, the great king who built Voltron, made the decision to disband Voltron and send the lions across the universe. Zarkon has been searching for the lions for ten thousand years, only succeeding in finding the red lion, although he took it from Alfor when he murdered him, the lion attempting to protect it’s pilot”, Keith explains, sighing. “Zarkon was close to finding about the blue lion, too.”

“Zarkon’s been alive for what, ten thousand years? Is that normal for a galra?” Pidge asks, biting her lip. Not good. 

Keith shakes his head. “Definitely not normal. Rumor is that he was affected by the quintessence field - the area between realities - during the war, making him crazy and immortal.” 

The room is silent again, the three cadets trying to swallow what Keith is telling them. 

“How do we come into this? Seems like Zarkon’s pretty unbeatable”, Lance figures, voicing both Hunk and Pidge’s thoughts. “What could we do about it?” 

“Well I for one would prefer if you three did nothing”, Shiro huffs. “I don’t think children should be brought into this.” 

“Hey!” Lance huffs. “Both me and Hunk are seventeen. We aren’t kids. And Pidge is on the young side, sure, but he’s just as capable as us.” 

Shiro sighs. “Still.” 

Keith places a calming hand on Shiro’s arm before explaining: “I don’t know yet. I just… had this feeling when you three approached us. Like you guys are important.”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “You felt like we’re important? Is your plan going by whatever Keith feels like is important?” 

The awkward silence is explanation enough. 

“Okay, what the fu-”, Lance begins, but is stopped by Keith physically perking up, making Shiro look to him, concerned but curious. 

  
“What’s going on now?” Shiro asks, leaning towards Keith. “Do you feel something?” 

Keith nods eagerly before spinning around, walking to the cockpit. Shiro glances at the three cadets before following suit. Pidge goes after him, not bothering to check if Hunk or Lance follow her. 

The cockpit is lit up by only the screens in front of Keith, gleaming light blue. Keith’s hands fly over them and Pidge sees the desert spread around them, endless to every direction she can see. Pidge has never been out this far, clearly remembering the garrison’s warnings about getting lost in the seemingly endless terrain of barren land, occupied only by some of the wildest animals on the planet. And some rumored shack guy.

Pidge turns her attention back to the screens but is saddened by text in an unfamiliar language. It’s probably galran or something, because the letters resemble nothing Pidge would be able to claim as an Earth language. 

Keith is focused, sitting on the edge of his chair. They approach something in the distance, maybe hills. 

“Over there?” Shiro asks, tilting his head. Keith nods, his eyes glued to the horizon. “Okay. I’ll tell the others to get ready.” 

Keith doesn’t give a verbal confirmation but Shiro leaves the cockpit anyway, glancing at Pidge as he walks out. 

Pidge watches Keith work the controls. She hasn’t piloted a ship before, not even bothered to try, but is still curious. It is alien technology, after all. 

“So…”, she awkwardly begins. “How does this thing work?” 

She hadn’t really expected for Keith to react in any way, but he turns his eyes from the horizon to her for a second, before looking back. “I don’t know what to tell you. Ask something more specific.”

“Um”, Pidge thinks, looking around her. There are so many things to ask about. Too many. “Well… how is the ship powered, for example?” Pidge begins, shrugging. 

Keith hums. “There’s a crystal, mined from something called a Balmera. The crystal is what powers the ship.”

Pidge’s eyes widen. “How’s that possible? Do you use fuel? Like, at all?” 

Keith scrunches his eyebrows. “By fuel, I’m going to guess you mean something like gasoline. Gasoline is used rarely these days, when we can utilize Balmeran crystals for power. Some ships run on electricity, collecting power from a sun, but they can trustfully be used only close by to a solar system . A lot of ships are powered by quintessence, though.”

Pidge wants to ask about quintessence, but the way Keith’s tone changes when he talks about it makes her keep quiet. She doesn’t want to test Keith’s patience. She is about to ask something else, but Keith stops her by slowing the ship down by pulling the brake a bit too hard, forcing Pidge to grab the pilot’s chair to prevent falling down. 

“What?” She groans. “Why would you do that?” 

“We’re above it.” 

Pidge perks up and looks outside but finds nothing out of place about the scenery around them. The canyon they have settled into is normal, nothing weird or alien going on. Keith lands anyway. 

“I don’t feel anything”, Pidge points out, but Keith shrugs.

The ship lands smoothly, Keith clearly knowing what he’s doing. It’s easy to exit, as Hunk, Pidge and Lance pile outside. Shiro hangs behind, waiting for Keith, who emerges shortly after. When the ship is turned off every light dies and the canyon plunges into darkness, the starry sky spreading above them, yet providing nowhere enough light to light their way. 

Pidge doesn’t hesitate to start investigating, grabbing the flashlight she always has taped to the side of her backpack. 

She studies the wall right in front of her, noticing two pairs of slow footsteps approaching her. Both Lance and Hunk stop to stand by her side, Pidge too focused on eyeing the ravine for anything suspicious to focus on them. 

  
“So”, Lance begins to Pidge’s dismay. “Are they crazy or nah?” 

Pidge takes a deep breath and huffs. “Lance, at this point, you cannot deny the existence of aliens. I mean seriously”, Pidge moves her hand towards wherever the ship is “- there’s like proof right there. That ship is no human tech.” _And Keith is no human man. Kind of._

“Yeah”, Hunk agrees. “That stuff? Way too cool to be human. Just saying.”

Lance sighs. “I can buy that alien stuff, but I meant the talk about some kind of world-saving power rangers type of shit. That sounds more like something from fairytales than scifi.” 

Pidge raises an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure you can find a large collection of anime dedicated to what Voltron sounds like. A giant robot mech.” 

“Haa haa”, Lance grumbles. “But seriously. Should we believe their Voltron nonsense or nah?”

Pidge bites her lip and looks around for Shiro and Keith, finding the two standing by the ship, engaged in a hushed conversation, spoken way too silently for Pidge to even try and listen in. 

“Look, I say we try and see where this goes”, Pidge decides. She’s not sure when she became the ‘leader’ of the three of them, or when they became an actual functioning group at all, but it seems like both Hunk and Lance are looking to her for opinions. Okay. “If, at any moment it starts looking like they’re pulling shit out of their asses we can just book it.”

“You think they’re gonna just let us go?” Hunk asks, skeptical. 

“Yeah. Shiro doesn’t seem to want us along and he seems to have at least some kind of influence with Keith. Shiro would never let underage cadets get hurt, no matter how much whatever went on up there affected him", Pidge explains, pointing to the stars above them. She's just a bit curious about the origins of Shiro's white tuft of hair, prosthetic and scars, but fears to ask.

Besides, she has to know more about Matt and dad. 

“So go with it for now?” Lance asks, pursing his lips. “I don’t like this plan.”

“It’s all we’ve got for now”, Pidge reminds him, before she’s stopped by a yell. 

  
“Over here!” 

-

Keith approaches the cave in front of him, seeing it quite clearly in the darkness of Earth’s night, yet the insides of the cave plummet into darkness. 

Something is pulling him towards it, into it. Keith knows it’s the lion, he knows, because he’s never felt anything like it before. 

The Blue Lion is only a whisper in Keith’s head, a small knock on the brick walls still surrounding his mind. Keith didn't hesitate to let it in through a small hole in the wall, not even bothering to wonder if it’s some kind of trap laid by Haggar. 

The witch is the least of his worries for now. 

Blue is like a breath of freedom. A breath of the ocean wind, blowing through Keith’s lungs. He has never been to an Earth ocean, but he somehow knows that’s exactly what Blue is after. Blue is certain, calling to Keith, pulling him towards the lion with a gentle touch. 

It’s not Keith’s usual style, but it’s nice. 

He’s broken out of his thoughts by Lance. 

“So a cave.” 

Keith doesn’t answer, instead just walking in, opting to just ignore Lance for now. 

He’s not sure what attitude problems the human has, and he’s sure as hell not about to find out. Or try and make sense of them. 

Instead he walks into the cave, pressing his hands against the wall. He can feel something, like carvings. Keith flinches and pulls his hand away, the palm of his hand burning. 

Suddenly the cave glows blue, momentarily blinding Keith. He groans, shadowing his eyes with his hand. 

“Uhh, Keith, you might wanna see this.”

Keith slowly opens his eyes at Shiro’s words. 

The walls are littered with carvings. Keith spins around, trying to look around, taking in the cave around him. 

Keith notices he’s walked off, away from the others, who are all stacked at the entrance. 

And Lance is frozen, his hand pressed against the wall. The corners of Keith’s mouth twitch up. 

Blue had made a curious choice. 

“Well, Lance, looks like-”, Keith begins and starts walking towards the others, when suddenly the floor gives out under them, plummeting them into darkness. 

Keith hears the screams echoing around in his head moments after as they slide down a tunnel, their fall accompanied by a stream of water. They land in a puddle, groaning. 

But Keith is the first to set his eyes on the Blue lion. 

He stumbles up, brushing off whatever dust and water dirtied up his clothes as best as he can before walking towards the Lion. 

The presence in his head grows anxious, knocking against his walls. Keith lets it out the same way it came in, careful to not alert Haggar to the swift movement in his defenses, but the witch is occupied elsewhere, not really bothering with him at the moment. Good.

“No way”, Keith can hear someone whisper behind him as he hurries forwards. 

The lion has pulled a particle barrier around it, Keith immediately realizes. The magnificent machine is sitting down, glaring down at them. Keith shudders, resisting the urge to bow.

“How are we going to get inside?” Keith muses, placing a hand around the barrier, wishing the lion were there to guide him. The barrier ripples under his touch, but doesn’t waver. The lion’s eyes feel like they're silently mocking him. 

  
“Maybe you just have to knock”, Lance mutters, walking next to Keith, raising a hand to knock on the barrier. 

And it dissolves under his touch. 

Everything is showered in blue again, yet Keith cannot tear his eyes away from the lion. A vision clouds his view. 

Five streaks of light, moving together, forming something Keith could only dream of ever witnessing. 

Voltron. 

“Woah”, they all whisper in unison, Lance being the one to take the reins this time. “Uh, did everyone just see that?”

“This is Voltron”, Shiro whispers, quiet wonder in his voice.  Keith can’t find his vocal chords.

The ground trembles as the lion moves, crouching down to open it’s gigantic jaws, laying down a small bridge to walk inside, clearly stopping purposefully at a spot where Lance would be the first one to enter. 

Keith feels a jab of pain. It was him the lion guided, not Lance. It was him who was set on this mission, not Lance. It was him who-

Keith pushes those thoughts away. Who knows, maybe he’ll never get a lion. Maybe he’s just one small part of the equation, just there to bring the others together, never to be given a lion. He is, after all, a galra. Why would the lions trust one to pilot them after what happened with Zarkon? He glances around himself again, noting that there is five of them. 

  
Five paladins. 

Keith shakes his head and follows Lance into the lion.

Inside is even more awesome than outside. The cockpit is lit in a similar blue fashion as earlier, systems booting up slowly. Keith is surrounded by Blue’s now familiar aura, but it’s not there solely for him, instead for all of them, somehow reassuring. Keith gulps, half expecting the lion to burn his palm upon touch like the carvings did. Nothing (luckily) happens when he touches the back of the pilot’s chair.

Keith is about to open his mouth to speak when Lance gasps, stiffening in the chair for a moment. 

“Whoa, did you guys just hear that?” he asks, turning around to look at Hunk.

“Hear what?” Keith asks, feeling more and more salty every second. 

“I think It’s talking to me”, Lance mutters before foolishly pushing random buttons before Keith can stop him. 

The lion roars, the sound deafening to Keith’s ears, especially as it is accompanied by Pidge and Hunk screaming. Keith doesn’t tell them to shut up, even if he wants to. 

“Okay, got it. Now, let’s try this.” 

Keith has never been more afraid of his life while being on a ship piloted by another. Lance’s piloting is horrendous and they shoot out of a wall of the canyon, flying out to the desert. The moon is what Keith thinks could be its highest, not lighting up much, especially as it is just a slither of silver in the sky. The lion does have lights, that is a plus, but it does nothing to stop Lance from making Keith want to throw up. 

More kindly put, Lance's skills have room for improvement.

“Isn’t this awesome?” Lance joyfully asks after a moment of torture. 

  
“Make it stop, make it stop”, Hunk groans, voicing out Keith’s thoughts. 

“I’m not making it do anything! It’s like it’s on autopilot”, Lance chuckles, yet Keith finds himself doubting that very much. It is true that the lion could be doing most of it itself, but then again, the alteans were capable of amazing things with technology even without magical inter-reality building materials.

Suddenly the lion changes course, jumping up and moving upwards, towards the unfamiliar star systems of Earth’s sky. 

  
“Where are you going?” Keith asks, grabbing hold of Lance’s chair to support himself. 

“I said it’s on autopilot! It says there’s a galra ship coming for Earth!” 

Keith jumps, glancing at Shiro, who is already looking back at Keith, concern written on his features. 

  
“Haggar must’ve sent someone to check if we came here or not”, Keith says and stops to grit his teeth. “We have to stop the ship from coming anywhere near Earth.”

“So fight the ship? Wait, who's Haggar?” Lance asks, tilting his head. 

Keith sighs. 

“I don’t like the idea of going against an entire ship with just us but I don’t think we have a choice. I can show some important targets to take it out for you. Let’s go", he tells Lance, avoiding his questions about Haggar.

“I was just wondering…”, Hunk begins, turning everyone’s attention to him. “The galra are coming for the lion right? Not for Earth?” 

Keith and Shiro glance at each other, neither quite sure of what to say. Keith hesitantly nods. 

“So why don’t we just, I dunno, give it to them?”

Both Keith and Shiro blow up into argument, silencing Hunk’s thoughts immediately. Keith is starting to get a headache. 

“You don’t understand”, Shiro explains, frowning. “Voltron is the Universe’s last hope against the galra. Against Zarkon. We cannot just give something like it up, no matter how easy that would be.” 

For a moment there is quiet. Then Shiro chuckles: “With great power comes great responsibility.” 

The humans chuckle, Hunk turning forwards, more determined. 

  
Keith doesn’t get it. 

The cruiser appears, shunning the others to silence.  Keith freezes.

_ Broken sentries. Blood staining Keith’s clothes,his hands, his sword. Staining him. Keith takes in a ragged breath, trying to grasp for air but the smoke doesn’t let him, it won’t let him breathe and the world darkens around him and he's falling-  _

Keith forcibly pulls himself out of those memories. He has been avoiding them all this time, yes, but now is definitely not the time, though.

“Holy crow!” Hunk whines. “Is that a galra ship? How are we going to take something like that out!” 

Just as Hunk’s finished speaking the ship starts shooting, forcing Lance to dart the lion away. Keith acutely realizes the situation he’s in: trapped in a high-target enemy with three inexperienced cadets and his boyfriend, getting shot at by people who probably still want him dead for murdering their second cousins or something. 

Keith can’t find his words, something constricting his throat. 

_ Smoke, it fills his lungs, stops him from breathing, takes the floor out from under his feet- _

No. Not. Going. There.

Thankfully, Blue seems to have a plan. 

One laser is enough to cut the cruiser's side, sending a row of explosions along its side. Keith feels Blue’s triumph around him, floating in the air. The lion drags it’s claws along the other side of the ship, sending an another wave of explosions off. 

“Good job Lance”, Keith says, sarcastic, finally managing to catch his voice. It’s a bit too raspy for Keith’s liking. “You took out their communal spaces. Too bad that’s not going to slow ‘em down for long.”

Lance darts away, the ship turning to go after them. 

Keith bites his lip. At least it’s away from Earth now. 

The three cadets panic but Keith feels no reason to. He’s confident that the lion can outrun one cruiser.

  
“Where are we?” Keith questions over Hunk and Pidge’s concerned quarrel with Lance. 

“The edge of the solar system”, Shiro mutters, turning to look to their right. “There’s Kerberos.”

“It takes months for our ships to get out this far”, Pidge points out in awe. “We got out here in five seconds.”

Suddenly something Keith’s never seen before opens up before them. It looks like a wormhole, somewhat similar to what the galra use sometimes with Haggar, but somehow different. Kinder.

“This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there”, Lance says, slowing down the lion only slightly. 

“Where does it go?” Pidge asks, glancing between Lance and the wormhole. 

“I don’t know", Lance frowns before turning around. "Shiro, you’re the senior officer here. What should we do?” Lance asks, looking to Shiro for guidance. 

Shiro takes a deep breath, looking out to the wormhole and then to Keith, a silent question in his eyes. 

  
“I’m sure you know more about this than I do, Keith.” 

Keith shakes his head. “You know what we have to do, Shiro. But still, we’re going to be a team from now on”, Keith speaks, directing the first sentence to Shiro and the rest to everyone. “We’re gonna decide on this together.”

It’s a silent agreement and a small touch from Pidge to get Lance to guide the lion forward. 

  
“All right. Guess we’re all ditching class tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My brain: Maybe you should not start up the new part of you fic just as your test month starts? You're gonna be busy.  
Me: I gotta. 
> 
> So it's pretty easy to guess why the new chapter is out this late compared to my usual speed... school. Fucken school, am I right? 
> 
> The first episode of Voltron is going to be so many parts.... holy shit. Fuck. Argh. 
> 
> Enjoyed? Leave a comment, they always help and encourage me to continue working on fics ;)


	3. The Rise of Voltron, part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But, instead of finding a paladin, her eyes land on Keith.
> 
> “You!” she grumbles, letting Lance go and marching towards Keith, who pulls his ears back. “What is a galra doing in the castle!”

Shiro watches the planet approach. He doesn’t know what this feeling in his stomach is and he’s not sure if he likes it: it makes him feel cornered, locked in. 

Scared. 

Shiro looks at the three cadets in front of him, frowning. 

Lance McClain, whom Shiro remembers as someone with a hidden talents, which just never got to shine as he kept on competing with James Griffin. 

Hunk Garrett, who has always tailed Lance and still is, even when the current situation is less than ideal, especially for the comfort-favouring boy. 

And this Pidge, who Shiro thinks is starkly familiar. He has the same face, hair and eyes as Matt used to, so much that Shiro can hardly look at him without feeling that familiar tug in his stomach. That longing for his best friend. But Shiro can’t place Pidge anywhere: he doesn’t recall Matt having a younger brother, only vaguely remembering his sister but… she was a lot younger, wasn’t she? And, y’know, a girl?

Shiro frowns, suddenly unsure. He has to get to the bottom of this eventually. 

Shiro sighs and glances at Keith, who’s fidgeting. He wants to pull the other aside, to confront him about Keith’s insistence of bringing underage cadets along, but he can’t. Not right now, at least, not in front of them if he aims to actually put some sense into Keith. he just has to hope later won’t be too late.

Shiro’s pulled out of his thoughts by Hunk, who vomits on the floor. It almost makes Shiro gag and Keith visibly jolts away. Shiro can imagine Keith’s ears pressing back and his nose wrinkling if he were in his galran form. 

“I don’t recognize these constellations”, he mutters, looking out from the lion’s eyes. “We must be a long, long way from Earth.” Again. 

“The lion seems to wanna go to this planet. I think… I think it’s going home”, Lance quietly says.

Keith jolts and Shiro looks at him, only to find the other man already too deep in thought for Shiro to catch up at this point. Keith’s mouth is moving slightly and his eyes are unfocused, like almost always when his brain is doing triple backflips to connect dots. It brings a small smile to Shiro’s lips.

It doesn’t take long for them to start descending on the planet, the lion shaking from the strain. They all huddle around the pilot’s chair to keep from tumbling all over the place, Shiro trying to ignore Hunk’s puke-breath.

“Guys, personal space”, Lance grumbles. “Hunk, your breath is killing me”, the boy continues, making Shiro sigh.

“Is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole?” Hunk questions, clearly addressing his thoughts for the two other cadets. Keith’s mood goes down by every word that comes out of Hunk’s mouth. “Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?” 

“It got us away from that alien warship, right?” Lance argues.

Keith grits his teeth before saying: “Hunk, trust the lion. As Lance said, it’s with us. As long as we do like we’re meant to do, we’ll be fine.”

Hunk’s face twists. “That’s reassuring”, he grumbles.

Keith’s about to argue when Shiro decides that it’s time to step in, raising his voice over whatever Keith was about to say: “Alright, knock it off! No one’s happy to be in this situation, but we’re here now. If we want to get through this, we’ve got to do it together.”

He finds himself surprised in his own words, but Keith’s slightly embarrassed but proud smile is definitely worth it. 

“So, what do we do?” Pidge asks. 

And Shiro finds himself as the leader again. He looks to Keith for help but Keith only gently shakes his head. There’s something too knowing in his eyes for Shiro’s tastes but if Keith thinks Shiro should take the lead, then he shall. 

“First, we find out where we’re headed. Lance?” 

“I don’t know”, Lance admits, sounding a bit defeated. “I’m sorry, the lion’s not talking to me anymore.”

Shiro’s about to turn to Keith when Lance stops him, shushing everyone in the cockpit. 

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shhhh, listen, I think I hear something.”

Keith scrunches his eyebrows and is about to open his mouth but then closes it, pressing his fingers over his nostrils. His voice comes out muffled: “That’s disgusting.”

“What do you-?” Shiro’s about to ask when he realizes it too, his realization accompanied by Lance’s gas.

“Eww!”

“Come on, Lance!”

“But seriously”, Lance adds “there’s a castle up ahead.”

Keith jolts, immediately turning his eyes to the view before them. He leans forward, his mouth forming an ‘o’ of wonder, his eyes widening into huge purple orbs. 

“No way”, he whispers, gulping. “That’s… the Castle of Lions! I would recognize it in my dreams!”

“The Castle of Lions?” Pidge echoes, sounding confused. 

Keith eagerly nods. “The home of the Lions of Voltron. The Castle of altea, one of the greatest things ever created, alongside Voltron!” he exclaims as the story of Voltron and the first war is returned to Shiro’s mind as well. 

“Could it be possible? The castle must be over ten thousand years old at this point”, Shiro mumbles, his eyes straying to the gorgeous structure in front of him, glistening in white and blue.

“Has to be”, Keith mumbles, leaning even more forward, his face filled with adoration. “The miracle of technology. For ten thousand years ago, that is”, Keith shrugs. “Maybe even still today.”

Pidge and Hunk’s eyes gleam, Lance looks vaguely interested. 

Shiro doesn’t like where this is going, but he realizes that his time to change things was too long ago. He should’ve said something back on Earth, should’ve stopped the cadets from dragging along. 

He fucked up, royally. And now three kids are on his watch and if something happens to them that’s gonna be his fault. 

Shiro’s breath hitches and he freezes, checking to see if Keith noticed. The other hasn’t though, or if he has he has put it up to Shiro being amazed of the Castle.

Now, do not get him wrong, he’s excited. This could turn the tides of the war. This could be the end of Zarkon, the end of the galra tyranny. 

If only there weren’t three cadets stepping in boots too big to fill. Hell, these boots are probably too big to fill for Shiro, too. 

Shiro looks at Keith, who fits inside the lion like he’s been made for it. Keith is so comfortable, seemingly unbothered by the weird presence around them, something Shiro presumes is the Blue lion. Shiro can almost see how gears turn inside of Keith’s head, breaking apart the spider’s net that is what they’ve walked into. Keith is like made for this, whatever this is.

Centuries of history, centuries of battle, centuries of forces too great to comprehend fighting against each other for dominance. This is not a battle of good and evil. This is a battle of greys, mixing in with each other ‘til there’s only a single colour left.

Shiro shivers.

The lion lands with a soft thump, sending dust and sand flowing around it, catching the wind and drifting off. Something about the place makes Shiro’s every hair stand on edge, even though this is supposed to be the home of something as great as Voltron. 

“Keep your guard up”, he orders as they shuffle out of the lion. 

“Something wrong?” Pidge asks, sounding confused. 

“My crew was captured by aliens once. I’m not going to let it happen again”, Shiro mutters, making Keith snort. “You don’t count”, Shiro chuckles, patting Keith’s hand, the other just snorting again.

They barely make it out of the lion before it roars, the ground shaking under its massive feet. Shiro instinctively moves to protect Keith, the other frozen in marvel.

The lion’s roar opens up the huge doorway before them, making Hunk shout in surprise, yelling something about rather not being eaten. Shiro’s stance eases in confusion but Keith is already walking, his mouth opened in wonder, so Shiro has no other choice but to follow him in, the others running after him. Thankfully the lion doesn’t follow, Shiro already starting to get sick of the weird presence, like the machine were alive.

The corridor is dark as the group wanders in, their footsteps echoing in the hallway. Keith’s jaw is almost to the floor by now, the man spinning around to take in all of the details, his galran eyesight allowing him to pick up details in the dark much better that the humans can. His eyes flash like a cat’s when they hit the light flooding in from the still open doorway behind them.

Hunk spooks all of them by shouting a “Hello!” and making the atmosphere shatter.

“From the size of the lion”, Pidge begins, reminding Shiro of Matt yet again. “I would’ve expected these steps to be bigger”, he mutters, pointing to the very human sized steps in front of them. 

A blue light above them suddenly gleams, showering them in light. 

“Hold for identity scan”, a voice calls out, making Shiro twitch.

A ring of blue light envelops him, moving up from his legs and through his whole body. It doesn’t feel like anything but leaves Shiro feeling somehow exposed, so he can’t help but inquire: “Why are we here? What do you want with us?” 

As if he didn’t know the answer.

Lights turn on all around them, lighting up the huge hall of the castle. Shiro is suddenly thankful for the previous identity scan, for he would be blinded right now by the sudden onslaught of light. 

“Well that’s curious.”

Shiro turns to look at Keith, the tone in his words concerning Shiro. When he turns around he stills, his eyebrows raising. 

Keith is there, yes, but he’s been stripped of his disguise, there in full galra mode. Shiro’s staring into those yellow-toned eyes and purple skin once again. Keith’s ear twitches before he seemingly forces it to still, the rest of him frozen already. 

“Woah”, Lance says, his expression surprised. “Out of all of the options I had, I was not expecting some kind of space furry.”

Keith frowns, poking at his hand, before closing his eyes, holding still for a second and re-opening them. Nothing happens. 

“That’s weird. My powers aren’t working”, he mumbles, frowning, before looking up at the ceiling. “Hey! What did you do!” he yells up at it. 

Shiro’s surprised that the tech answers, speaking out in that same female voice again: “We cannot allow cloaked trespassers in the castle and your DNA is not authorized in our system. Our apologies for any misunderstandings or incorrect data.”

Keith frowns before shrugging. “Okay, that makes sense.” 

“S-so you’re j-just gonna w… walk around like th-that?” Hunk asks, clearly terrified. Shiro feels kind of sorry for the guy. It’s not everyday (for the cadets) that you meet aliens.

Shiro spares a glance at Pidge, who is letting his eyes wander around Keith, taking in his appearance piece by piece. The look in his eyes is familiar and Shiro turns his gaze away.

Keith raises an eyebrow. “What other options do I have?”

Hunk gulps before turning to look away, Keith expression changing for a millisecond. Shiro’s pretty sure he notices just because he’s spent enough time close quarters with Keith to be able to read him. 

Hale and Meeri could be the only others that can. 

Shiro almost physically jumps at the thought of Hale and Meeri. He hadn’t thought of the two for the entire time they’ve been away, and now a pang of guilt hits him. 

What were the two’s reactions when they found Keith and Shiro’s beds empty? Did they understand that Shiro had no choice? That Keith had no choice? Are they angry? Sad?

Uncertainty and regret twists Shiro’s organs around, making him feel sick. He decides to distract himself by tuning back onto the others’ conversation. 

“So do all of you galra look like… that?” Lance asks Keith, sounding curious. Keith adverts his eyes from the human as he leans into Keith’s personal space. When Keith doesn’t answer his question, Lance decides to settle for poking Keith’s ear. 

Before Lance’s hand can get even close to Keith’s ears Keith grabs Lance’s hand firmly, shooting the other a threatening glare. 

“Don’t. Touch. Them.”

“Okay okay”, Lance whines, pulling back slightly offended, even though understanding somewhere underneath the playboy slash tough guy act. 

Keith sighs deeply before answering Lance’s question: “No, not all galra look the same. We are as different in shape and size as you humans, if even more altered. I’m… well I wouldn’t say small but under average for a galra. Not many galra have the type of ears I have, and they’re odd anyways since my mom doesn’t have them. I should, technically, also have a tail, but I don’t for some reason. Tails are actually very uncommon, about as uncommon as my ears. Full-Blooded galra never have tails.”

“That’s interesting. Are you all generally… purple as well?” Pidge chimes in.

“Yeah. The shade varies a lot. Most galra have markings”, Keith taps the two stripes on his cheeks “with the amount varying a lot.”

“Huh”, Lance sighs.

The conversation ends as they enter a large circle-shaped room. The lighting and architecture continues on with the same shape and colours, the room as huge as everything else. Keith scrunches his eyebrows, moving forward hesitantly. 

“Where are we?” Lance asks, the awe in his voice clear as the room echoes slightly. Shiro shivers again, cold seeping up his spine.

“It’s some kind of control room”, Pidge says, looking at the console in the middle of the room. 

Something rises up from the floor, making Shiro spin around to face it. It looks like two pods of some kind, hissing as they rise to stand on the platform surrounding the control panel. Shiro shifts his stance, readying himself for whatever is going to emerge from those pods.

“Are these guys… dead?” Hunk asks from his hiding spot behind the console.

One of the pods hisses open, revealing a… woman. A woman with dark skin and white hair, falling out of it with a gasp of “Father!”. Lance is there to catch her before she can topple to the floor, however, the woman falling into his arms.

“Hello”, Lance greets her and Shiro can immediately tell from the tone of his voice that this will not end well. 

“Who are you? Where am I?” the woman asks, staring at Lance. 

“I’m Lance. And you’re right here in my arms”, Lance smirks and Shiro wants to facepalm so hard right now. He glances at Keith and stills at the man’s rigid pose and widened eyes.

“Your ears”, the woman begins, scrunching her eyebrows. “They’re hideous. What’s wrong with them?” The woman frowns, pulling away with Lance. 

“Nothing’s wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!” Lance argues, leaning into her space.

The woman grabs Lance by his ear and hand, spinning him around and forcing him to kneel on the ground. 

“Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?” she asks, her slightly british accent very clear. How is it possible that out of all the accents Shiro’s translator could be giving this him with it’s british? I mean c’mon. British.

“A giant blue lion brought us here! That’s all we know!” Lance panickingly answers, clearly wishing to get away from the princess’ grasp. 

“How do you have the Blue lion? What happened to it’s paladin?” she asks, starting to look around her, seemingly searching for this ‘paladin’.

But, instead of finding a paladin, her eyes land on Keith.

“You!” she grumbles, letting Lance go and marching towards Keith, who pulls his ears back. “What is a galra doing in the castle!” 

But before the woman can reach him, Keith does something that startles Shiro. 

He bows. 

“Princess Allura, I assume?” Keith says, his face still towards the floor. This ‘princess Allura’ stills, frowning. “It… it is an honor to meet you. I… we thought you perished a long time ago.”

“How long ago?” Allura whispers, her face softening into a look of concern and confusion. “How long has it been?” 

Keith takes this as a sign for him to stop bowing. He carefully moves to stand fully tall and Shiro notices that Keith is clearly taller than her, but Keith is somehow making himself seem smaller. He doesn’t know if it’s because he’s scared or because Allura is some kind of royal, but he’s hoping for the latter. 

“Ten thousand years, my princess.”

Before Allura can react, the second pod opens, revealing an older man with an orange moustache and a serious expression. His expression changes, however, the minute he sets his eyes on Lance.

“Enemy combatants!” the man yells, lunging at Lance, who skips out of the way. “Quiznak! You’re lucky I have the case of the old “sleep chamber knees”, otherwise I’d grab your head like this, wrap you up like so-- one, two, three, sleepy time!” he says, making some kind of disturbing hand movements. 

“Well, before you did that I’d--”, lance counters, making some kind of ninja moves. “Like that.”

“Really? How could you do that when I’ve already come at you with this?” the orange-moustached man says, poking towards Lance with his hand, ‘stabbing’ him repeatedly.

“I can’t believe it”, the princess exclaims, standing over the console in the middle of the room. While Shiro had been focused on Lance and the man’s exchange, she’d been rummaging around with it, her voice littered with shock. “We truly have been asleep for one thousand years.”

And suddenly she’s gone, trapped in memories of things that, to Shiro, are an unimaginable time away, but to her must feel like they happened just yesterday. Keith stills, his ears drooping sadly.

He knows this story.

“Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, father is gone. Our entire civilization…”, she whispers, talking to the orange moustached man.

“Zarkon.” her and Keith say, Allura’s voice hateful and Keith’s voice saddened. 

Allura turns to Keith, a flame in her eyes and in the tone of her voice. 

“Because of what your people have done, what your Emperor did, everything the Alteans were is gone!” she practically shouts, walking up to Keith again. This time the man doesn’t flinch, just stays tall, his eyes gleaming. “Zarkon was a vile creature, enemy to all free people.”

“And he still lives”, Keith answers and Allura stills.

“Impossible”, she whispers. 

Keith can only nodd. “No matter the efforts the Blade of Marmora has put into taking down his Empire, Zarkon has become untouchable. It doesn't matter how many assassins we send after him, they either never make it or the witch heals his wounds.”

“Blade of Marmora? Witch?” Allura questions, taking a step back from Keith. 

“Yes”, Keith confirms, his mouth pressing into a thin line before he continues. “After Alfor perished, an escaping altean and a galra, who disagreed with Zarkon’s ways, formed a rebel group, which they named the Blade of Marmora, after one of our sacred prophets. We have been working against Zarkon for his entire reign, pretty much, but there is only so much one organization can do. We have gotten many close calls, even managed to fatally wound him five times, but the witch always keeps on nurturing him back to health, which is always followed by a catastrophic decrease in our members”, Keith explains, his expression sour. “He has been searching for Voltron, but we have kept the lions from him, protecting them. The only lion in his possession is the Red lion, which he took from your father.”

Allura looks mortified, averting her gaze.

“Not all galra are bad or evil, princess”, Keith says, softer. “You must give us a chance.”

“Zarkon is searching for Voltron because that is the only thing capable of defeating him”, Allura begins, dodging Keith’s plea. Keith narrows his eyes but doesn’t say anything, settling on his place for now. “And that’s exactly why we must find it before he does.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hhhhh writing Allura is so hard may god help me.
> 
> Maybe another chapter in the weekend if I have time!


	4. Th Rise of Voltron, part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “They’re here already?” Shiro asks, his hurried tone revealing the seriousness of the conversation. 
> 
> Before Keith can answer anything, the screen behind them turns on, revealing a face a bit too familiar for Keith’s likes. 
> 
> “Sendak”, Keith manages to hiss before the man begins his speech.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been gone for too long now my friends. Here, take a longer chapter :3 Awoo, good news, we'll be done with the first episode with one more chapter! I think after that I can put one episode into one or two chapters. We'll see. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Keith watches in marvel as the ship worked by Allura’s command, ignoring Coran’s explanation to the other paladins as he takes his time, taking in that yes, this is actually happening. He knows how this ship works like the back of his hand (well, theoretically) so he let’s Coran’s voice turn into a pleasant hum in the back of his skull, his ears leaning forward in curiosity. 

He is still a bit surprised at how easily the ship stripped him of his outlook and is kind of worried whether or not he will gain the ability back. He’s unsure of how much Allura would want a galra on her ship, especially one with shapeshifting abilities. 

Keith is pulled from his thoughts by a starmap opening up around them, pulling gasps from the others. 

“These are coordinates”, Pidge points out. “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same location as the Blue Lion”, he says, sounding a tad confused.

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage!” Coran comes in, his voice cracking.

“Very observant”, Princess Allura praises. “That’s because the Black Lion is in the castle.”

Keith already knows this, but it’s crazy to actually hear all of this from the actual people he’s read about, even adored, in his younger days. 

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present”, Coran explains, confirming the Blade’s records to be correct. Excitement buzzes in Keith's chest.

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in their lion. Together they form something greater than science can explain”, Allura explains before sighing softly. 

“I can sense your quintessences, and I can see that all of you have great potential to pilot… although, on some cases, I find it difficult to figure out which one’s are meant for you”, Allura confesses, her eyes straying over to Shiro and Keith. 

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring”, Allura begins, floating the small model of the Green Lion to Pidge, whose mouth is opened in a small ‘o’. 

“The Blue Lion-”, Allura continues, but Lance cuts her off in a way that has already made itself a trademark thing of his, even when Keith has known the guy for about an hour. 

“Hold up, lemme guess. Takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?” 

Allura frowns, deciding to just ignore him, reluctantly letting the hologram settle beside him. The hologram lion looks satisfied to be there, much to her dismay.

“The Yellow Lion is caring and kind”, Allura explains, her voice softening. “Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty”, Allura speaks, moving the hologram of the chunky lion towards a surprised Hunk. “As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together”, Allura finishes, as Hunk points a finger at himself, making a distressed noise.

“For the Red and the Black lions, however”, Allura speaks, keeping the last two holograms floating in the air. “Black is the head of Voltron, its pilot needing to be someone with leading skill and a responsible nature. Red is the most difficult of the lions to master, it’s speed and agility unmatched. It is also the most temperamental”, Allura explains, the two lions floating above her head. “Both of you display the skill and capability for either of these lions… also, Keith, something in your quintessence seems strange… it is unlike of any galra I’ve ever seen, half-galra included.”

“I may be able to shed some light to that, Princess”, Keith answers, shifting his stance. “Although, I would rather speak in private.”

Allura raises a confused eyebrow but does not argue, shrugging instead. “I cannot locate the Red Lion’s coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle.”

Keith is silent, letting Coran talk about some nicknames, trying to figure out how to break the news of his… split blood to Allura. Direct approach would probably work the best, but-

The holographic lions roar, making Keith jump, his ears pressing backwards. They run off, combining together in a flash of light. 

“Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe”, Allura speaks, as the lions form a hologram of Voltron, just as Keith remembers it. 

“Awesome!” Lance gasps.

“Wait, okay, we’re going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part”, Hunk rambles, in a very Hunk way, Keith finds. Are his new… teammates this predictable? “How do lions turn into legs? Is this going to be a long trip? I have to pee. Do you people pee?” Hunk worries, patting his stomach.

“I think the best course of action is for you two to go get your lions”, Keith says, frowning. “We don’t have much time, and, not to offend your math Coran, but I can guess that the Empire will be here a bit faster than a few days.”

“No offence taken!” Coran shrugs. “Figures my head counting would be a bit off-track”, the older altean huffs, staring at his fingers with a suspicious expression.

“Okay”, Shiro huffs. “I think Pidge and I should go after the Green Lion. Lance, Hunk, you two go get the Yellow Lion”, he orders. 

“I don’t know about the Red Lion, but we’ll think about it if you guys can locate it”, Shiro says, a bit unsure. 

Allura nods, agreeing to the plan. “In the meantime, I’ll get this castle’s defenses ready. They’ll be sorely needed”, she sighs, glancing around. 

“I think I can help with that. I’ve done my fair share of reading about the logs on this thing, so I have a pretty good theoretical grasp of how the Castle works.”

Allura offers Keith a smile, which is a start and a chance he’s happy to take. He has to get things sorted with her, or nothing will come out of this. 

-

When the others disappear in their respective portals, Keith is left with Allura and Coran, the three falling into an uncomfortable silence. Keith shuffles on his feet, trying to ignore the awkwardness of the situation. 

Allura takes a deep breath before turning around to face Keith, the previous smile gone. 

“Let’s start with you explaining what is going on.”

Keith hesitates.

“What do you mean, princess?” Keith asks, nervousness starting to get to him. Allura’s eyes are a cold blue, sending an icy glare to Keith’s direction. 

“Well, let’s start with you. Who are you? Why is your quintessence so...”, Allura points to Keith’s direction with her hand, closing her eyes in concentration “So wrong!” 

“Uhh-”, Keith begins, but a sharp jab of pain in his head cuts his sentence short. 

Haggar is back, full attention turned to Keith, probing against the wall more persistent than ever before, her consciousness like a huge blob of black matter pressing against his walls. Keith clutches his head, adding layers to his walls as fast as Haggar manages to destroy them. 

“Keith!” Allura screams in the background but her voice is muffled by the ringing in Keith’s ears. His breathing quickens and he lets out a growl, trying to figure out what to do to even try to stop Haggar’s assault. 

Then there’s someone touching his head and a cold wave spreads through him, dimming the pain. Keith sighs deeply, the pain turning from a sharp stab into a numb ache. Haggar pulls back from Keith’s wall, seemingly confused, but doesn’t stray far.

“What is happening to you?” Allura asks, her hand resting on Keith’s head. 

“This is the witch. Haggar”, Keith grumbles, trying to make sense of the thoughts scattered around his head. “She’s never attacked this brutally before.”

“What are you talking about?” Allura huffs. “Who is Haggar?” 

Keith looks up, his vision a bit blurry. 

“Zarkon’s right hand. The altean witch.”

Allura jerks sharply, removing her hand.

Haggar seizes the opportunity, her assault resuming with a fury. Keith screams, his vision blacking out, feeling starting to disappear from his fingers to put more energy in protecting himself.

Allura, luckily, places her hand back quickly, numbing the pain again. 

“It’s not possible. The rest of the alteans perished. They we're hunted down, killed”, Allura whispers, leaning closer to Keith, who still has his eyes closed in frustration. 

“She didn’t… she was in the rift with him. She was affected by it in the same way, or maybe even more, I don’t know. She’s been around as long as Zarkon has”, Keith explains, out of breath. Haggar is still there, waiting, lurking, for that chance to attack again without Allura’s touch. 

“With him… but that would mean that she’s…”, Allura whispered, gasping.

Coran, who has been floating around the two, unsure of what he should do, jumps. He kneels down next to Keith, concern written in his movements. 

“Are you sure, young man? What does this… Haggar look like?”

Keith hesitantly opens his eyes, looking up at the two curious and concerned alteans. 

“In public”, Keith begins, biting his lip. “She has purple skin and white hair, these red markings on her cheeks”, Keith explains, moving his finger to where Haggar’s marks lay, moving his finger down about as far as Haggar’s markings go. 

“But she can shapeshift. I’ve seen her natural look and she has a similar skin tone to yours. Her eyes have whites too and her ears are sharp.”

Coran raises to his feet and moves to the console, pressing buttons in a thoughtful silence. 

“What happened just now?” Allura asks, her attention turning back to Keith. “What was that episode?”

“It was Haggar. She is an alchemist, still, likes to experiment. One of such experiments was made to me when I was captured by the galra. I can tell you all about that later though. In short, she injected me with her blood.”

Allura’s eyebrows rise a bit. 

“And galra still have the ability to form mental bonds with their family members, and the blood injection has a risk of forming a mental bond between the donor and the receiver, so in this case me and her. And it did.”

Allura looks even more surprised.

“So, my quintessence is weird because I’m technically one third altean through this unfortunate set of accidents?”

Allura freezes, trying to again remove her hand from Keith’s hair but he stops her by a gentle grab of her wrist. Coran turns around on the console, in the middle of searching for whatever he is searching for to gape at Keith.

“I…”, Allura whispers. 

Keith takes a deep sigh. “I also gained an ability to shapeshift to a much larger ability than alteans usually can due to my human half giving me a unique sensitivity to quintessence.”

“Oh”, Allura manages, her mouth forming a small ‘o’. 

“But uhh the castle kind of doesn’t allow me to shapeshift. I was hoping you could fix that?” Keith tries, looking up at Allura with what can only be called puppy eyes. “Please?”

After a moment of staring at Keith with complete surprise in her expression, Allura hesitantly speaks: “Castle, allow Keith to use his abilities.”

A small ding is the only answer she gets, before the blue light from before surrounds Keith again.

“I have to remove my hand. Can you...?” Allura hesitantly asks.

Keith nods as an answer and Allura pulls her hand away, the blue light moving up from where it was previously set along Keith’s nose.

The pain makes Keith let out a scream of pain unlike ever before. The attack is brutal, Haggar drilling into Keith’s walls with unseen passion. Keith tumbles to the floor, his hands ripping out hair and his nails dragging lines into his scalp. 

She’s almost through when the cold is back again, this time from Allura ripping Keith’s hands away from his hair, holding them in her own. 

Haggar, in the middle of her attack, doesn’t have time to back away. Half of the mass of her consciousness gets sliced apart by the sheen of cold Allura’s touch generates on the surface of his walls, the cold unrelenting and unwilling to let Haggar’s mind retreat.

Eventually, her presence fades due to being disconnected from the source, but the some ticks it takes for it to happen are still painful. Keith feels blood drip down his chin from biting into both his lip and cheek, the taste of blood sharp in his mouth. 

And then Haggar is out, still somewhere, waiting for an another chance to attack, but away from Keith’s mind. He lets out a sigh of comfort. 

“Thank you”, he whispers, before letting his more human look bleed over him.

It’s liberating to turn into this form, when he doesn’t have to watch out for his expressions so much as with the ears. He can see how both Allura and Coran visibly calm down, when the galra in their ship disappears.

“How does my touch help?” Allura asks. “I’m asking a horrid amount of questions but still”, she chuckles, helping Keith up, still a hand in Keith’s. 

Keith shrugs. “It’s this… cold sheet that spreads around the defenses I’ve put around my mind to keep her out. It works, for some reason.”

Allura frowns thoughtfully. “Huh.”

“Keith”, Coran softly says, pulling him and Allura out of their silent wondering. “Does she look like this, by any chance?”

The picture he’s pulled up is of an altean woman with dark skin, her markings a certain shade of red that is almost drowned in her skin tone. She has kind eyes and a small smile, her grey hair pulled back into a bun, some of it not long enough to reach the bun and falling on her eye. 

“Well…”, Keith hesitates, trying to picture out why the woman looks familiar but not quite right. “No, the hair color is wrong. And the eyes… are too kind, I guess.”

Coran hums, before clicking to reveal an another picture. 

Zarkon is not hard to recognize from the picture, even as he looks a whole lot younger than these days. 

The woman at his side is still the same as before, but there are some differences. 

The hair, for one, has changed into almost that familiar shade of white Keith is used to see peeking out from under Haggar’s hood. Her eyes have gained shadows, slightly hidden by the small smile on her lips but very visible to Keith. There’s something in them, a sense of urgency. The previous happiness and curiosity has been masked by tiredness and something that Keith can only describe as hunger. The markings have changed too, no longer soft and round-edged like what Allura and Coran have, but sharp-edged and shaded a sharp red.

It’s Haggar.

“That’s her”, Keith huffs out, wishing he could cross his arms, but his other hand is still being held by Allura. “Haggar, without her usual disguise. And less sickly-looking.”

“Honerva”, Coran whispers. “She was a great alchemist.”

Allura doesn’t seem to share the similar longing as Coran, but her shoulders are weighed by heavy grief.

“And a great friend”, Coran sighs, closing the picture.

Allura looks at Coran with a saddened expression before taking a deep breath and moving to stand up a bit straighter.

“Well, let’s get on with the Castle’s defenses, shall we? We can continue our discussion about your powers and past while we work. You said you have studied the Castle’s mechanisms before?”

Keith nods, Allura offering him a smirk. 

“Let’s get cracking, then.”

-

Shiro follows the youngest member of their newfound team, anxiousness building up in his stomach. Worry about Keith is a constant headache in the back of his mind and Shiro doesn’t know what to do about it other than get back as quickly as possible. Shiro has trust in Keith, that he can handle himself, but Shiro doesn’t really know anything about the two alteans. Could Keith fight the two of them off, if the situation got hot? 

He and Pidge pierce through the treeline, arriving at a riverbank of some kind. 

“Look!” Pidge gasps, pointing to their right. 

There’s a boat, carved of some kind of wood. It looks like good handwork, the front of it carved to resemble a lion’s head, it’s mouth open slightly and it’s expression otherwise quite… angry?

Shiro hears the rustle of leaves to their left and turns to look, only to notice something standing next to them. 

Both him and Pidge jump, Pidge not wasting time hiding behind Shiro for cover. 

The creature lets out a small noise, confusing Shiro further.

“It’s just a…”, Pidge begins but stops, as if to try and figure out what the thing is. “Whatever that is."

The creature walks past them, towards the boat, before stopping and clearly motioning them to follow after it.

“I think he wants us to get in his canoe”, Pidge figures, sounding a bit unsure. 

Shiro considers it briefly. This... creature, perhaps the least human-like thing they’ve yet to see, is the only thing yet not bringing shivers of suspicion to Shiro’s spine. Actually, besides the initial jumpscare, there is nothing threatening about the creature, even it’s face seems to look like a gentle smile.

“Then I guess we should go”, Shiro decides, shrugging. When Pidge looks confused, Shiro elaborates further. “I’ve been locked up by aliens for a year. This is the first unsuspicious thing I’ve felt around here!” 

If Pidge doubts his logic, he doesn’t mention it.

The boat ride is quite peaceful, as the creature rows them downstream with a steady pace. Pidge and Shiro ogle the animals occupying the jungle around them, especially the yellow slug-like creatures with multiple feet, who chirp and wave at them as they glide by.

The river leads them into a cave, with a lion carved above the opening. The tunnel is large enough to still be comfortable, especially for Shiro, who has grown a small hatred for tiny spaces. The water reflects beautiful shapes along the inside of the tunnel and the air is not as humid as it could be. Shiro likes the peaceful area, enjoying how the sounds of the jungle around them quiet, as they are separated from the other world by a layer of stone. He sighs deeply, enjoying what may be his contact with nature for a long time. 

They slide out of the tunnels, which is when Pidge opens his mouth to speak.

“I know the Princess said this was supposed to be my lion, but what is she’s wrong?” 

The young cadet stirs Shiro out of his bliss, as he tunes into the conversation to properly hear what he has to say.

“She’s probably not wrong. She’s a princess, but I’m not a pilot. I’ve never even piloted a simulator before. I’ve read all the fighter manuals, but that was because I was mostly bored, I’ve never really had the urge to fly one!” Pidge rambled. 

“I mean, at least I can’t be worse than Lance, he crashes all the time!” Pidge nervously chuckles. 

The creature rowing their canoe looks back at Shiro, who only manages to shrug, not exactly sure what has gotten into Pidge. 

They enter an another tunnel, this time with lion carvings on the walls too, and Pidge continues his rant. 

“What if I get in there and it doesn’t respond? What if I get in there and it’s too big and my feet don’t touch the pedals? What if there aren't even pedals!?” Pidge continues, frantic. Shiro realizes that it’s time to put a stop to this. 

“You’re rambling”, Shiro calmly says, the younger boy slumping down a bit. “Listen… Our commander on the Kerberos Mission is the smartest man I ever met”, Shiro begins, that wonder filling his voice like always when speaking about Sam Holt. “And he always said: “If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great.””, Shiro speaks, always fond of speaking about Sam. Seeing how the cadet calms down a bit, those were the right words to say. 

They both gasp, as they arrive at the end of the river. 

A temple, hidden within the trees, guarded by statues of lions and clearly showing its age. Shiro and Pidge jump off the canoe as it hits the beach, giving their guide a goodbye-wave as the creature moves on, leaving the two. 

A path of carvings lights up in green, guiding them towards the temple. That sense of dread fills Shiro’s chest again, but Pidge is already moving forwards, arriving at the bottom of a huge staircase, it’s steps illuminated by that similar green light. 

Despite the dread in Shiro’s chest, he doesn’t hesitate to guide Pidge towards with a few choice words (“Go, be great”) as the boy turns to look at Shiro for direction. Shiro is left to watch as he, so resemblant of the man Shiro used to work with, well, of both of the men, climbs up the staircase, leading up to something covered with vines and leaves. He knows what is under them, and a small sense of pride settles over him. 

He still feels guilty. He is pulling people who had nothing to do with this war into it, into boots too big to fill for anyone, into a position so remarkable that very few similar will ever exist in the universe. And Pidge is fifteen. Just a fifteen year old kid.

But somehow Shiro knows that the kid will do exactly what Shiro told him to do. He’ll be great.

-

Keith watches as the paladins flood into the room, first Shiro and Pidge and then Hunk and Lance, both of the latter groaning and rubbing different places of their bodies. 

Keith is still standing by Allura’s side, the woman hovering close yet not quite touching. Haggar seems to have backed off after the last attack, but she could return at any moment, and Allura will be ready for it. If Shiro notices their closeness, he doesn’t say anything. 

“You made it!” Allura cheerfully greets their last missing paladins, her mood higher as they had managed to get most of the Castle turned on, if not quite functioning properly. 

“Yeah, just barely. That was a nightmare”, Lance groans, rolling his shoulder. “I almost puked out there! I felt like Hunk!” 

“Think about how I felt”, Hunk interjects. “I am Hunk.”

“Yeah. We had a tough time too”, Pidge grins, looking up at Shiro who grins back, like the two have an inside joke. Keith doesn’t bother trying to crack it, already knowing that the Yellow Lion’s planet was taken by the Empire, even before his capture, while the Green Lion’s planet was untouched. It's not hard to guess.

“Good news”, Keith speaks, deciding to turn the conversation into the actual matter at hand. The others finally seem to notice that he has gotten his more human look back, Hunk easing a bit. “We managed to locate the Red Lion.” 

The other paladins glance at each other. 

“More good news is, it’s nearby!” Coran cheers, pulling his mustache. 

“Bad news is, it’s on board that Empire ship now orbiting Arus”, Keith sighs.

“Good news again! We’re Arus!” Coran finishes.

“They’re here already?” Shiro asks, his hurried tone revealing the seriousness of the conversation. 

Before Keith can answer anything, the screen behind them turns on, revealing a face a bit too familiar for Keith’s likes. 

“Sendak”, Keith manages to hiss before the man begins his speech. 

“Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire”, he speaks, pulling out gasps of shock from the others. Keith keeps his face devoid of emotion or reaction, thankful that his ears are hidden, unable to betray him. Sendak’s eyes twitch to Keith’s direction for a fraction of a second and Keith has to stop himself from smirking. He has already managed to tick the Commander, who enjoys watching his lackeys’ shocked expressions, or, well, anyone’s shocked expressions as they see him. 

“I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe”, the Commander continues, his voice reeking of admiration as he speaks Zarkon’s name. It makes Keith want to puke. “I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.”

Before Keith can shoot back an answer (something along the lines of “You and what army?”) the feed cuts off, leaving them in a silent room. 

“All right, let’s not panic”, Shiro begins, trying to take the reins. 

“Not panic?” Hunk asks, wheezing. “Th-the scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us, we only have four lions!” He squeaks, pulling up four fingers. 

“Technically only three working lions”, Pidge offers, crossing his arms.

“That’s right, thank you, Pidge”, Hunk huffs, patting his friend’s shoulder before continuing: “Three working lions! And a castle that’s like, 10 000 years old!” he rambles. 

“Actually”, Coran comes in and Keith wants to facepalm. “It’s 10 600 years old. You see, it was built by my grandfather--”, the altean begun, yet thankfully Hunk stopped his story time with a finger against his lips. 

“Thanks, Coran. Thank you for that”, Hunk interjects and Keith sighs, much rathering to listen to Hunk’s nervous speech that Coran’s (hundredth) story time. After all, they’d had nearly two hours to fix the ship. “See?” Hunk continues. “Now is the perfect time to panic!” 

“Wait!” Allura calls out. “This castle has a particle barrier we can activate!” she says, stirring Keith’s memory about something along the lines of that. 

“Girl, you’ve already activated my pa--.”

“Lance!”

Keith pulls up a few files, as he had improved the Castle’s recordings of the ships these days, seeing as their info had grown slightly outdated in the course of 10 000 years. Sendak’s ship is surely one of the fancier ones, powered up with that extra punch like one of the more heavily loaded ion cannons. Comparing it to what the Castle’s particle barrier can withstand, it’s a staggering difference. Keith grimaces. 

“The particle barrier won’t hold Sendak’s ion cannon forever”, Keith sighs, opening up more detailed descriptions of the cannons. He had logged into the Blade’s info system with his own user, both notifying Kolivan of the Castle’s position and of the mission’s success without Allura’s knowledge. In return, he gets every piece of info the Blades had collected in the past ten thousand years. 

“Panic now?” Hunk asks, sounding ready to pounce.

“No, we’ve just got to figure out a plan of action”, Shiro says, biting his lip. “And figure it out quickly.”

“I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day”, Lance suggests, Hunk immediately jumping along with him. 

“Then it’s settled”, Lance smirks. “Allura, you can ride with me! One of you take the old guy.” 

Thankfully at least Pidge has some sense in her. “We can’t just abandon Arus. The galra...”, here he hesitates, glancing at Keith, who looks sour. “The Empire will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them”, he states, determination filling his voice. 

“Okay”, Hunk butts in. He has been a much larger part of this conversation than Keith had figured he would. “What if we run, then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth?”

Here Keith sees his chance to come in. 

“What will stop Sendak from destroying the planet anyway? We’re Voltron. If he threatens to destroy this planet, unless we show up, wouldn't you come back and save these people?” Keith is quiet as Hunk and Lance hesitantly nod. “Yeah. And Sendak is smart. He knows that, and he won’t hesitate to use it against us. Staying is our only option.” 

“Here’s an option”, Lance decides to say. “Shut your quiznak!” 

Both the alteans behind him look horrified and Keith chuckles. “You’re not using that word correctly.”

“What do you know?” 

“We’re staying!” 

“Leaving!” 

“Staying!” Pidge yells, joining in on the fight.

“Snake!” Hunk yells.

“Guys, stop!” Shiro calls out, making Keith immediately jump away from Lance, realising how close his hand had been hovering over his knife holster. The spike of fear in Lance’s eyes shows that the other noticed too. “Princess Allura, these are your lions. You’ve dealt with the Empire before. You and perhaps Keith know what we’re facing better than any of us.”

The unsaid question is left hanging in the air, quite obvious. Allura’s shocked eyes find Keith’s, yet the princess finds nothing in the other’s eyes but determination. 

Victory or death, the galra quote, rings in her ears. She wonders if they still use it.

“I…”, she whispers, looking down at her interlocked hands. “I don’t know.”

“Allura”, Keith speaks up, before Coran can say anything. “This decision is, ultimately, yours to make. I don’t know much about what happened then, how your father came to the decision he did, but he ran, didn’t he?” 

Allura looks up from her hands to Keith, surprised. 

“He hid the lions from Zarkon, but how did that help the universe? It subdued it, forcing it to roll over for Zarkon without anything to defend it from him. And, while you’ve been gone, the Empire has only gotten stronger. There is no one strong enough to stand against it, but us.”

Allura locks eyes with Keith. 

“Keep that in mind as you make your decision”, he says, gentler now. 

Allura freezes for a moment, before tearing her eyes away from Keith. She takes a deep breath before looking at each of the people around her, one by one, slowly returning to Keith. 

“You are correct. You, all of you, and both of us, are here for a reason. And that reason is to stop the Empire”, she speaks, her voice strong, the previous quiver gone completely. “We must be willing to sacrifice everything for this mission. We must keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny.”

The four humans and one half human in the room all look at each other, the resolve already clear in their expressions. Keith walks to Shiro, placing his hand on the other man’s shoulder.

“We’re with you, princess”, Keith says, all of them smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is wierded out by how quickly Allura's way of acting towards Keith changes, it's because A) he reveals to be kinda altean B) he changes his appearance into a human one C) At her heart, Allura is a hero, no matter the person she has to save. Keith's clearly being hurt by something, so she doesn't hesitate to jump in to help. 
> 
> We will be seeing her more hostile outlook again too, however.


	5. The Rise of Voltron, part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura nods, smiling. “I thought so.”
> 
> Keith raises an eyebrow: “You did?”
> 
> “You are already wearing the correct armor, are you not?”
> 
> Keith has the decency to blush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Deep breath* Holy shit that took long I am practically crying back here. But I finally finished the first episode! Oh JOY! 
> 
> Fuck
> 
> Sorry for the long wait, my life decided to be a bitch and make more use of my time than in the past forever. Hopefully the next chapter won't take this long to write...
> 
> P.s. Editing and spell-checking this was a nightmare. Sorry for any mistakes that slipped my eyes. Please inform me of them if you spot any annoying ones :P

The lights of the armory flicker on in a very familiar fashion, revealing the five suits hidden behind them. Allura feels her heart jump anxiously as she sets her eyes on the Red and Black armor. She had never seen the paladins wear these particular suits, but she could easily imagine her father standing in it. However her own reflection is what gazes back from the pod and her shoulder slump for the tiniest of moments.

The future paladins gaspe in awe, all of them leaving forward to inspect the beautiful works of handcraft which are the paladin armor, while Allura fidgets with her hands. 

“Princess, are you sure about this?” Coran asks, pulling his moustache. “They aren’t exactly the best and brightest the Universe has to offer”, he says, doubt clear in his voice.

Allura has to sigh. “No. But they’re all we’ve got.”

“Allura, about that Lion thing”, Keith begins, glancing towards the red armour. “What about me and Shiro?” 

“Hmm, good question”, Allura frowns, pursing her lips. “I suppose, if I am to head out with you, I could use a set too.”

Her eyes slowly drift to a room to the side, it’s door slightly hidden in the shadows of the armory. “Come with me boys. The three can of us can dress up here. Leave the red and black suits for now, until the corresponding pilots have been chosen.”

Allura walks to the half-hidden door, motioning Shiro and Keith after her. The two glance at each other before following her into the dark-shaded room. 

In it is stored five extra pieces of armor, each of them colored in white.

“The paladins liked to store these extra suits. They aren’t colored yet, and I feel like there is no need to, until we know what lions you are to pilot.”

Allura leaves the two to choose their temporary suits before walking to one of the storage units, changing more privately. She feels a strange tingle in her fingers as she moves to wear the suit. She remembers looking up at her father, designing one of the first real sets of paladin armor. He had always put hours of work into making them, taking into consideration every situation the wearer could end up in. Her father had never left anything halfway done.

When Allura turns back around to the two men, she finds Shiro standing close to Keith, their hands intertwined. She feels like she’s intruding, but the two haven’t noticed her yet. She feels drawn to them, interested in the way the two seem so close. Sure, she noticed their earlier closeness and ease around each other, but this… this is different. 

Allura spins around when she sees Shiro move closer to press a small kiss on the corner of Keith’s mouth, heat flowing to her cheeks. She feels like an intruder.

“Princess, are you ready?” Shiro asks a moment later, his voice easily echoing through the mid-sized room. 

“Yes! Let us continue!” She answers, turning around to see the two men standing noticeably further apart. She hopes her embarrassment is not too evident in her voice.

-

The young cadets are suited up too when Shiro, Keith and Allura return from the other room. Pidge is looking through the programs in her suit, occasionally gasping in awe or muttering to herself about how the devices even work. Hunk is adjusting it, seemingly surprised that the suit fit him properly. Lance is… flexing, if you can call it that. 

Allura walks to the center of the room, pressing a button to reveal a stand, some oddly-shaped objects laying on it. 

“The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron”, Allura explains, the objects levitating upwards. The yellow, green and blue ones move to Hunk, Pidge and Lance respectively, each of them moving to grab their bayards from the air. The red one is left floating in the air beside her. “It takes a distinct shape for each paladin”, the princess continues and, like on cue, the bayard form into three different weapons.

Hunk is equipped with a heavy-looking gun, not distinctively reminding Shiro of any other weapon he has ever seen. It is like a mash of different styles, perhaps entirely altean. Hunk grins. Lance gets a gun as well, a sniper-style one, judging by how he holds it. Pidge, on the other hand, receives some kind of blade. He immediately does some practice swipes with it, obviously immediately comfortable with it. 

Lance, apparently intent on picking on somebody with a weapon in their hand, chuckles. “Aw, you got a cute little bayard”, he says, offering Pidge a goofy grin.

Pidge swipes at him, tasering the boy.

“Yeah, it is pretty cute”, she grins over the sound of Lance’s wail.

“I’m afraid the Black bayard was lost with it’s paladin…”, Allura sighs, rubbing her upper arms. “And I am quite sure that we will be unable to get it back from Zarkon any time soon”, Allura mutters, sighing deeply.

“Yeah. Wait!” Lance squeals. “Zarkon piloted the black lion!?” he asks, looking confused. 

“Yes, Lance”, Keith jumps in, sounding slightly annoyed. “Zarkon piloted the Black Lion, before deciding to betray the entirety of his team and becoming an evil Emperor.”

“Why would he do any of that?” Pidge asks, sounding suspicious. “Why betray his team and pretty much everyone else in the Universe? Is he that power hungry?”

Allura is about to open her mouth, judging by her face to say something rude, but Keith jumps in. 

“Zarkon’s motives are hidden in darkness. We can’t be sure, not unless we ask him directly. Ten thousand years is a long time to pass information about stuff that, even back then, was highly confidential”, he explains, glancing at Allura. “I’m sure that even you, princess, don’t know the whole story.”

Allura looks grim, but nods. 

“Now, let’s get back to the bayard business, right?” Keith continues, giving Allura a small smile. The princess sighs deeply, but takes Keith’s chance of changing the subject. 

“Yes. Both Keith and I are already equipped with weapons, so you can take the red bayard for now, Shiro”, the princess says, already moving the red bayard towards him. 

“Actually”, Shiro says before the bayard can get into reaching distance. “I have my own weapon, too”, he chuckles, carefully lighting up his arm. 

All of the eyes in the room, apart from Keith’s, open up wide. 

“It can do that!?” Pidge excitedly squeals, moving closer to ogle. “I saw you fight back on Earth but I’m pretty sure there was no glowy arm action going on!” Pidge excitedly rambles, scanning the arm with her new tech. “The readings on this thing are amazing!” 

“How did you…?” Allura asks, her eyes gleaming in the light purple glow. 

“It’s made by Haggar. You know, the witch Keith was talking about earlier. I lost my arm way back when I got captured, can’t really remember why. She replaced it”, Shiro awkwardly explains, shutting the arm down. Pidge whines sadly.

“By Haggar…”, Allura whispers before dragging her eyes away from the arm and shaking her head. “Alright. I will hold the bayard, then.”

-

Keith can hear the heartbeats of Shiro, Pidge and Allura as the four of them break into the galra cruiser. Keith makes sure to keep his heartbeat steady and his breaths frequent. 

He feels the tingle of memories at the back of his head steadily returning, reminding him of how all of this started, but he pushes them away before they reach the competent part of his mind. He can’t risk having an episode now. If he ends up freaking out, he could ruin the mission. If he ends up going feral, he might kill his new teammates. Neither option is… optional. 

They enter into the engine room, where the patrols are much lesser. Keith can hear Lance and Hunk’s swift talking through the comms, but he doesn’t bother listening to them, instead muting the two. He focuses on leading Shiro, Pidge and Allura through the maze that is Sendak’s control ship.

Of course, most of the galra cruisers are built with the same blueprints, but Sendak’s ship is a custom built one. It has weird extra hallways and rooms Keith has never seen before. 

It has also been a while since the last time he’s been on a galra cruiser like this. 

In a moment of quiet, Shiro takes in a breath and gasps, sharply turning around. 

“I’ve been here before”, he says, stopping Keith in his tracks. “After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here. Sendak… that’s why he looked familiar.”

“So that means your other crew members could still be here! We have to rescue them!” Pidge exclaims, seeming very concerned. 

“Pidge”, Keith softly says, wanting to step in before she can get too much hope. “They’re not going to be here anymore. The Empire has never had human prisoners before. We know that Shiro and his other crew member got sent to the Arena. The third member is most likely either being experimented on by druids like I was or being otherwise experimented on. They don’t keep members of previously unknown races just… locked up”, he explains, trying to soothe down the frantic boy. 

“Pidge, I understand your need to help these other humans, but Keith is right”, Allura jumps in, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We will find them, okay? But they won’t be here, no matter how much we would like them to be”, she softly says, smiling. 

Pidge looks shaken. Her hands are trembling and she bites her lower lip. 

“Pidge, we have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus”, Shiro softly says, frowning.

“But we can’t just leave prisoners here! It doesn’t matter if the other crew members are here, there’s bound to be someone!” 

“Look, no one understands that more than me, but in war, we have to make hard choices. Now, let’s get moving.” 

“No!” Pidge yells, shocking the three others. Keith feels the hairs at the back of his neck prickle. “Sam Holt is my father. He and my brother were the ones on the Kerberos Mission with you. If they’re here, I have to save them.”

Keith doesn’t know much about the people who Shiro went on the Kerberos mission with, but he knows enough to know how good people they were. The young boy’s confession also slightly breaks his heart. 

“Commander Holt is your father?” Shiro asks, clearly shocked, yet it seems like some part of him already knew. 

“Yes! I’ve been searching everywhere for him and my brother. And I’m not going to give up looking when I’m this close. I won’t!” Pidge speaks, turning away as if to go off on her own. 

“I will come with you”, Allura says, stepping in. “I… I must admit, I came along, perhaps hoping for the Red Lion to actually choose me”, she confesses, looking a bit ashamed. “But I know… I know it will be one of you two. I denied it.”

“Princess…”, Keith sighs, looking saddened. 

“But I know that the Red Lion is not my destiny. I will go with Pidge. Perhaps it is time for the new Voltron to make their first good deed.”

Shiro is quiet, his eyes glued on Pidge, but Keith smiles. 

“Go. We’ll find the lion. Hack into an operator, I think you’ll find the way to go there”, Keith smiles, pulling Shiro along. He’s about to say something, but the sound of oncoming footsteps from the hall next to them makes him change his mind.

“Run!” he shout-whispers instead, grabbing Shiro and rushing to the first direction he finds without guards. 

They end up in a turn, both of the hallways looking identical to each other. 

“Great. Now, which way?” Keith sighs, rubbing the back of his head. 

“You feel anything?” Shiro asks, trying to look down the hall to their left. “Any weird quintessence stuff or anything?”

“No”, Keith sighs. “Do you?” 

“Nope.”

The sounds of guards force them to head right.

-

“Not again”, Shiro groans after the tenth time they’ve run into the same cross of paths. “How is the ship a maze like this?” 

“I don’t know, this thing doesn’t follow any footprints I’ve seen before. Feels like Sendak has done this just to annoy people.”

Both of the men stand in silence, glaring up at the glowing galra insignia above their heads. 

“If we could just ask directions… I can’t hack well enough to get into the ship’s system.”

“Would a galra handprint not be enough?” Shiro asks, glancing at Keith. 

“No… ships fancy enough like this one have a special passport you need to know as a worker for stuff that classified. Opening doors and stuff works but anything with a higher security requirement…”

“Shit”, Shiro groans. “We’ll never find the Lion like this!” 

Keith can’t help but agree. He leans against the wall, pressing his hand on the panel. What’s that one curse word, apart from shit, that Shiro likes to use? Right, fuck. 

Fuck fuck fuck.

-

It took Pidge seconds to hack into the first operator they saw and copy the map. The prison cells aren’t too far. She can hear Allura’s steps a bit behind her, the princess letting her take the lead. 

She’s… strange. Well, she is an alien princess, the first one of her kind Pidge has met but still. There is something… ancient about her. (Well duh, she is like a ten thousand year old princess) In the way she carries herself. In the way she speaks. In the way she just is. 

Coran is like that weird uncle you kinda like being around but you’d never tell that to your mom or she’d make sure you never go near him again. Allura, on the other hand, is a princess. An actual princess. She’s all great posture and fancy speech. She’s like every fairytale character Pidge has ever seen. 

It’s almost threatening. Pidge has known her for like what, a day? During that time Allura has given them a sad backstory, a passionate goal and has shown to be very caring and able to accept her flaws. It’s like she’s been pulled straight out of any fairytale with a young princess. 

Pidge hates it. She’d like to say she hates Allura, but she can’t bring herself to hate someone like her. Never. But Allura is so perfect. She’s selfless, but not flawlessly selfless but like selfless deep inside and ugh-!

Allura’s here, running behind Pidge to free some random prisoners because she’s a good person and Pidge’s here because of a slither of hope that her brother and father will be here? Oh please, get a grip! 

Pidge is about to hit herself in the head for selfishness but the fact that she almost runs into some floating bot stops her from doing so. She and Allura both skid into a stop as the bot beeps silently. 

Before it can scan their faces or send a distress signal Pidge moves, shooting out a laser from her suit. She had played around with it earlier in her lion, almost shooting Shiro in the face with it. Handy.

“What is it?” Allura asks as Pidge bows down to examine the half-dead bot. She got lucky that the laser didn’t do any actual damage, just messed with the bot’s functions.

“It’s a little bot, how cute! This will definitely come in handy!” 

It’s easy to open the thing up, switch ‘round a few wires and use the same control reset she’d been using on the door pads earlier… the bot whirs back to light, it’s little glowy lights now turning from purple to blue. 

“I do not remember the galra having… things like that. Before”, Allura awkwardly says as the robot moves to float by Pidge’s side.

She ignores the woman in favor of talking to her new best friend. “I’m going to call you Rover. Follow me!” 

And they’re on the move again, nearing the brig. The closer they get the more anxious Pidge gets. What if they run into a patrol? What if Sendak realizes what they’re doing? What if something, anything, goes wrong?

She listens into the comm channels again as they get closer and closer to the brig. When she hears no chatter from Shiro and Keith’s line a cold shiver runs through her spine.

“Shiro? Keith?” She calls, trying to find the sound of static in her ears. Nothing. “Shiro?” Nothing. “Keith!?” Still nothing.

“Allura, Shiro and Keith aren’t answering”, she immediately says, letting worry seep into her voice. “You think they’re ok?”

Allura looks at Pidge, her expression already creased with wrinkles of worry. “I do not know, Pidge. We have to trust them to be able to do their jobs correctly.”

“Right.”

Pidge tries to sound reassured, but she’s pretty sure she fails. The rest of the run to the brig is silent, only the softest of thumps coming off from their footsteps. 

The skid to an another stop in front of a larger door. The two glance at each other before nodding. 

“Rover, open it.”

The anticipation builds too high, longing tugging Pidge’s heart. She can’t stop herself, instead rushing in through the half-open door. “Dad?” 

Light floods the room and it’s easy to see that there are no humans in the cell. Pidge can’t stop her shoulders from sagging slightly. She knew this would be the case but still, she could do nothing but hope. 

“Do not be afraid”, Allura speaks behind her, kindness in her voice. “We’re here to rescue you.”

One of the prisoners speaks up, a long faced guy with some kind of antennae on his head. His eyes are shadowed by dark circles and he, like pretty much everyone else here, looks pretty roughed up. 

“Who are you?” the alien whispers.

“We are the paladins of Voltron”, Allura answers, her voice picking up as she seems to gain some kind of courage from the gasps of the prisoners around them. 

“Voltron… we have always been told that it is only a legend, a myth”, the same alien whispers, his eyes twinkling. “Could it be?”

“Yes it could. And it is”, Allura smiles. “Now, we shall leave this horrible place.”

The prisoners glance at each other before the same alien speaks again: “The galra have done many things to give us false hope. Why should we believe you?”

Pidge doesn’t care what Allura’s about to say. She wants to get out of here, now.

“It doesn’t matter whether you believe in Voltron or not. I’m getting out of here, and I figure it’d be in your best interest to get out of here, too. Or would you rather stay as Sendak’s prisoners?” she speaks, already turning to go. Rover beeps warningly. “We don’t have much time.”

Pidge leaves the room, not bothering to look whether or not the group follows her.

-

Keith hears Pidge calling for them and no doubt does Shiro hear it too, but they’re in a bit of a tricky situation. 

They hadn’t had any luck in finding the lion, just ending up wandering endlessly among the hallways of the cruise ship, feeling their hurry settle in by every step. It had been easy to avoid the patrols until now, but they had wandered too close to the barracks for comfort and the amount of soldiers walking about was about five times worse. 

Right now, both of the paladins have tucked themselves into a supply closet, not enjoying free space. Keith is trapped between Shiro and the shelves of the supply closet. He’s pretty sure his knees are pressing into the back of Shiro’s feet but the guy isn’t complaining. The chatter coming from the hall has both of them on their toes. 

“Man”, a soldier says, his voice clearing out more than the others around them. “I hate cleaning duty.”

Oh quiznak. Shiro tenses noticeably.

“Tell me about it. Why do we have to clean the lion’s hangar anyway. It’s not like anyone ever goes in there”, an another voice answers.

3...2...1.

The supply room door opens, revealing two low-ranked soldiers with frowns on their faces.

Before neither of the two of them or Keith react, Shiro jumps forward, activating his arm with a whir. It’s only one swipe and both of the men are down, either just knocked out or worse. Keith really doesn’t wanna check.

“Quickly, let’s get ourselves some disguises”, Shiro says, beginning to pull off the helmet of one of the soldiers. 

It’s a bit of a hassle, but in the end they manage to trade out their own suits for the low-ranking armor. It doesn’t sit quite right but it’s close enough. Keith blends his own skin tone purple, not worrying about anything else as of right now, after all, his skin is the only part showing. 

He looks at Shiro, who has managed to pull on the armor. Both of their suits lay discarded on the ground under them, the white very eye-catching in the ship. 

“What about our suits? It would be a shame to just leave them here”, Shiro sighs, scratching his head. “The bodies, too.”

“The bodies can go in the closet”, Keith figures. “But for the clothes…”, he looks around him, peeking into the hallway. A group of soldiers walk by and he salutes, the others answering with curt nods. 

“Bingo”, he whispers when he spots something in the corner of the room, perhaps usable.

The box is one of those bigger ones, usually used to move around large quantities of stuff or quintessence capsules. They quickly gather up their suits and throw them in. They push the two bodies into the supply closet and grab a few cleaning supplies just for show. 

Then they head out. Shiro pulls up the mask on his suit, covering his whole head. It’s a bit unusual for a soldier to be wearing it like so inside but not completely unheard of, so they manage to pass off as just the two poor kids stuck on cleaning duty.

After they walk for a while, Shiro leans over to Keith and whispers: “We still have no idea how to get to the Lion.”

“I know”, Keith hisses back, his brain doing triple backflips to try and figure out what they should do next. “I’m trying to figure out how we find our way.”

An another patrol enters the same hallway as them and Keith and Shiro separate, both of them saluting to the other patrol. Just before they pass the group, the leader of the patrol stops them by raising his hand. 

“Hold on a minute. I thought this hallway was just cleaned?” the soldier asks and Keith can feel his blood pressure rising.

“I…”, Shiro begins but Keith shuts him up with a nudge. A silent command, thankfully clear enough for Shiro to understand. 

“We’re new here. Would you happen to know which way the Lion’s hangar is? This ship is a total maze, the layout is completely different from the previous ship we worked in and no one bothered to show us the way.”

The leader of the patrol seems confused and Keith holds his breath. That was by no means a safe backup plan but if this works…

“I see”, the soldier finally sighs. “Yeah, learning the layout is a pain. Helpful tip is to think of it as a usual standard ship, everything’s just tripled. Got me through the first few weeks. The Lion’s in hangar three.”

“Thanks”, Keith curtly says, managing to sound reassured. “Vrepit sa!”

“Vrepit sa.”

He and Shiro hurry off, Keith finally letting go of the breath he was holding. 

“That was too close to my liking”, Shiro huffs. “Good plan, though.”

“That was purely luck. But I understand the blueprints now, and I’m pretty sure where we’re at”, Keith answers, taking a sharp left turn. “We’re almost there.”

The doors to hangar three are two large doors, which let the two men in with a touch of Keith’s hand. They push their cart inside, Keith staying behind to lock the doors behind them. 

They trade their armor again, under the eyes of the watchful lion. Keith can’t help but get tingles all over his spine from the pressure of the Lion’s presence, even as it’s hidden behind the particle barrier. The hairs on his hands stand up as he transforms into his more human-looking form, the change flowing over him like cold water.

“Okay. How do we get in?” Shiro asks as the two of them move closer to the lion, hesitant. “Allura said something about proving our worth?”

A huge clank to the doors behind them makes both paladins jump. They can hear shouts of the guards behind it, orders being thrown around. 

“That lock is not going to last for long!” Keith warns, looking around for something to use against the guards as Shiro runs to the Lion. He begins to talk to it, knocking on the barrier, while Keith drags the same box as before to make some kind of cover in the very bare bones hangar. 

“It’s not opening up to me!” Shiro yells as Keith pulls out his knife, transforming it into the sword shape.

“Well we’re fucked”, Keith curses, enjoying the freeing qualities of the Terran language, providing him with extra swear words. “If the damn thing won’t open up to you it will definitely not open up for me. We have to hold our ground. I know for a fact that the two of us could take on this whole damn ship if we had to.”

For a moment the hangar is quiet as Shiro walks over to the cover, where Keith is squatting, ready to pounce the guards, who will soon get the door to open. He squats down next to his boyfriend, oddly quiet. 

“I dunno, Keith. Can we?” 

Keith looks at Shiro, confused “What are you talking about? Of course we can.”

“Keith, it’s been a while since… y’know. And that was almost always one on one. That fight against the garrison officials? I was scared, Keith. I was scared of what I could possibly do to them, after all, they’re my… coworkers? Do I work there anymore? Anyway- look, the point is, I don’t know how much fighting I can do. And no matter how you try and hide it, I know that you didn’t get out of that place without scars left behind, both physical and mental.”

Keith’s eyes wander over to his hand, currently holding his precious knife, shaking slightly. For a second his sight darkens with blood but he shakes it away. Not now, not here. 

“I... “, Keith begins, before taking a deep breath. “You’re right.”

Keith’s eyes start to scan the room with urgency. Something… a way for them to get out of here. 

His eyes land on a pad not too far behind them. 

“You see that?” he asks, nodding to the pad. “That’s our way out of here. I bet you can open the hangar with that.”

Shiro’s sharp eyes land on the pad too and he nods. “What’s the plan?”

“We wait for them to barge in. Then, as they move forward, we open the hangar at the precise moment. Masks closed, of course, and we have to hold onto something. The pad, for example, so we don’t get sucked out into space like the soldiers will.”

Shiro nodds. “Sounds good. When do we move?”

At that moment, then hangar doors rip open, revealing a patrol of eight guards. When they notice Keith and Shiro’s abnormal armor, they start moving forward, already shooting. 

“NOW!” Keith yells, running for the pad. 

Shiro is the one to reach it first, glancing quickly behind him to confirm the position of their targets before slamming the button as hard as he can, sending the soldiers out into space. 

A moment of triumph hits the two as they hang onto the console. Keith moves to close the doors but a piece of metal hits the pad, shattering the machinery and hitting Shiro in the process, almost sending the human flying into space too, if Keith wouldn’t have grabbed his arm. 

“Hold- on-”, Keith grunts but both his and Shiro’s grasps are loosening by the second. 

A second piece of scrap is what settles it, hitting the arm Keith’s holding onto Shiro with, making the paladin shout in pain. His grip loosens and he lets go of Shiro with a yelp, the man getting dragged into space. 

“SHIRO!”

The lion lights up behind them.

-

Pidge and Allura are loading the prisoners into the escape pods when they’re caught by a patrol. For a second the two freeze up, but they also react at the same time. 

Both of them lunge forward, Pidge pulling out her bayard and Allura a staff, them taking on the bots one by one. Pidge finds that her bayard’s electric shock works great against galra technology and that Allura packs a mean punch with her staff, going as far as taking heads off of the bots. As they finish off the last of them with surprisingly little difficulty, the pod leaves behind them. 

“That was amazing!” Pidge gasps, slightly out of breath. “Girl power!” 

Allura stops, tilting her head in confusion. “Girl power?”

“I, Uhhh- I mean you have some bad ass girl power…?” Pidge hurries to correct herself, suddenly realizing that she is, indeed, posing as a representative of the male gender. 

Allura looks confused, but shrugs, as if letting it pass as one of Earth’s weird sayings. Hopefully. 

“We should go, before they send more sentries after us.”

-

The mood in the Castle of Lions is in high spirits. Shiro and Keith walk in, decked up in Red and Black armor respectively. They glance at each other and Keith sends Shiro a happy look. 

“I am so proud of you Shiro, for managing to get the Red Lion to open up to you. I will be more than happy to hear the story of how you made it later, but as of now, there is one more thing to do”, Allura speaks, shaking Shiro’s hand gently.

“Keith”, Allura begins, turning to the leftover paladin. “From what I heard from Shiro, you showed excellent capabilities to lead out there. I trust his words, and I am happy to offer you the position of Black Paladin. And so is the Black Lion.”

“You’re giving me a chance to say no?” Keith asks, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

“I am aware of your affiliation with the Blade of Marmora, Keith. If you wished to do so, we could return you home. Of course, I cannot guarantee that the Black Lion will take me as her paladin, but I would like to offer anyway.”

Keith smiles. “Thanks for the offer princess but…” Keith says, glancing at the other people around him. His gaze stops on Shiro, all dressed up in the red armor, looking proud yet concerned at the same time. “I think my services are needed more here.”

Allura nods, smiling. “I thought so.”

Keith raises an eyebrow: “You did?”

“You are already wearing the correct armor, are you not?”

Keith has the decency to blush.

Like on cue, the eyes of the Lions around them light up, one by one. Allura crosses her arms together like praying and so, almost unnoticeably, does Keith. The doors before them open, slowly, revealing the magnificent lion inside of the Castle. The Black Lion is easily the biggest of the Lions and something about the way it stands there makes Keith feel tingles up his spine again. 

The roar of the Lion is deafening, but it brings a grin to Keith’s lips.

-

The sounds of weaponry hitting the particle barrier echo around them as Shiro lands on the courtyard with the other lions. He feels the excitement of battle thrum in his veins and he takes a deep breath, focusing on the task at hand. 

One hit of the ion cannon is enough to send all of them groaning, the ground under them shaking. Have they already patched the cannon?

“Man, those guys repair things fast!” Hunk groans, sending his close-up of the repaired cannon to them and confirming Shiro’s fears.

“The barrier will weaken with every blast. We can take maybe two more before the shield goes down!” Coran yells through the comms, sounding very concerned. 

“Our rebellion is going to end here unless you manage to form Voltron now!” Allura shouts, grunting as smaller blasts barrage the force field around them. “Hurry!”

“Jeez, no pressure”, Hunk grunts.

An another blast hits the barrier and the Red Lion shakes uncontrollably. The air around them crackles with electricity as the barrier shakes and sizzles under the extreme attacks it is forced under. 

“Listen up, Team Voltron!” Keith’s voice patches through the comms clear as day and Shiro can hear his determination. “The only way we can do this is by forming Voltron.”

When none of the others join in on Keith’s determination, Shiro feels like he has to say something. “I know this looks bad guys, but we can do this. We have to do this”, he says, clutching Red’s controls. The Lion’s spirit hums in his head, in a way that feels much more comforting than what Blue’s was. It kinda reminds him of Keith.

For a moment the comms are quiet, only filled with a few small huffs of agreement, before Hunk speaks up. “I’m nodding. Is everyone else nodding?”

It almost makes Shiro laugh, the tension slowly bleeding out of his muscles. They can do this.

“Let’s go.”

Keith’s order is firm as he pushes the Black Lion forward, the other four following close behind. They face no problems exiting the particle barrier, the Lions bleeding through it seamlessly. 

“Ok, quick question, how do we form Voltron?” Lance asks after a moment of awkward silence.

“I dunno dude, I don’t see a “combine into giant robot” button on my dashboard nor is my Lion saying anything”, Hunk answers, his voice straining from forcing the bulky Lion to avoid most of the blasts headed his way. Shiro feels a quick pang of jealousy when he realizes that Hunk can take a lot of the blasts, with the Yellow Lion providing him with more than enough of armor for coverage, when he in Red has to dodge more than anyone else, due to the Lion lacking that sort of thing. Of course, he has no trouble swishing through the blasts with how fast Red is, but it would take just a few lucky shots…

“Argh!” Pidge shouts angrily as they’re getting chased down by multiple ships, giving them barely enough time to react, not anywhere close enough to do some thinking. “Can’t they just cease fire for one minute so we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?” he shouts before pulling the brakes and spinning around, grabbing a jet and throwing it at another, making the both of them explode.

The rest of them decide to stop running as well, Red narrowly dodging two heavier shots. “We have to do something. We can’t keep lucky-dodging these shots for long!” Shiro breathes out, sweat rolling down his forehead.

Something crashes into his Lion with a whole lot of force, making Red stumble and fall, spinning around a couple of times in the sand. Shiro has to hold onto his controls to not get thrown around the cockpit, almost missing Hunk’s yell of “COMBINE!” in the scuffle.

The Lion does return to its feet, but the anger coming off of it get Shiro heated up too. “Hey!”

“Okay, that didn’t work”, Hunk groans, as if he didn’t just almost run Shiro over. 

Shiro’s about to give him a few chosen words when Allura’s face pops up on his dashboard. 

“Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!” she yells, the feed shaking and shattering up in synch with the shots hitting the particle barrier.

Keith grunts in anger. “How about flying in formation? Anyone got better ideas?”

“Nope.”

“Sounds good.”

“Yeah okay!”

And with that they take off.

The feeling of flying doesn’t get old, ever. The way Shiro’s stomach jumps in excitement when Red’s feet leave the ground, how he presses against his chair as gravity pulls him down and how his eyes tear up slightly from the exhilaration… all of that feels exactly the same as when Shiro flew for the first time back at the Garrison. He gasps in wonder.

But there’s no giant robot. There’s just the feeling of moving, before the movement slows and changes direction. 

It’s definitely not supposed to do that.

“What the hell?” Lance asks as the powerful force pulls them towards Sendak’s ship.

“How is the ship doing that?” Pidge yells, sounding surprised. “It’s sucking us in like a black hole!” 

Keith gasps before his face appears on the feed. He looks serious. 

“That’s a tractor beam. We’re not getting out of here, not like this.”

Shiro feels his throat close up. No way. They did not loose yet. 

A third, final shot of the ion cannon dissolves whatever remained of the particle barrier. 

“I’m panicking!” Hunk yells, his face appearing on the feed next to Keith’s. “I’m panicking a lot!”

Shiro’s ears mute the rest of the calls of his team into the background and he leans backwards in his chair, almost letting go of the controls. Why. No… it’s… it can’t end here, can it? 

Shiro looks at Keith’s face. Even though it’s shadowed by his visor, Shiro can see the twinkle of sorrow in Keith’s eyes. A look of complete loss has taken over his boyfriend’s face, a look Shiro has never, and when he says never he means never, seen before. 

This whole Voltron thing? It had brought Keith hope, hope unlike anything Shiro had seen Keith bear before. Shiro idly remembers the words Keith said back in the armory, when they shared that quick kiss behind Allura’s back. 

_“You know what, Shiro? I think we can do this. I think we, with Voltron, can end Zarkon’s reign. We can return peace to the Universe.”_

_“You really think so?”_

_“Yeah. I’ve never been more sure of anything.”_

_“Well then I suppose you’re right.”_

_A moment of silence. A small smile dances along Keith’s lips._

_“A kiss for good luck?”_

_Shiro chuckles._

“No!” Shiro yells, returning to the present. “We can’t give up now! We have to believe in ourselves, we have to be able to do this!” 

Keith’s eyes drift from the world around them to Shiro, a small tear rolling off of the half galra’s cheek. “We can’t give up. We are the Universe’s only hope.”

Something lights up in both Hunk and Keith’s eyes. Shiro closes Hunk’s feed to be able to focus. He opens his own, just for Keith, and the other man jumps when their eyes meet through the feed.

“Everyone is relying on us. We can’t fail! We won’t fail! If we work together, we’ll win together!” 

At the end of his impromptu speech, Shiro can hear the shouts of “Yeah!” from his teammates. Keith’s lips twist into a small smile. 

Forming Voltron for the first time is… an experience. 

It a similar feeling to what it felt like bonding with Red for the first time, except it’s four other Lions and four other people at the same time. Suddenly everything Shiro calls his own mind, his own thoughts, is continued into others, their minds mingling together into a web of thoughts and ideas. It tells Shiro what the others are about to do, letting them form into a single being, Voltron’s brain.

All of them are probably yelling.

With their bare hands Voltron rips the ion cannon out of the ship, throwing it overboard. It hits the sand somewhere far below them, they dimly realize, but it’s not that important right now. Then they swing down their arm, their arm easily piercing the surface of the ship. One blast from their hand blows the thing apart, the entire front of it falling off in a set of explosions. They tear through the ship from a few other similar places, blowing out the engines and a few hangars. Piercing through the back of the ship is the last straw for the machine and they fly away, letting it blow into smithereens behind them. 

A sense of victory fuels them from that point onwards.

Shiro’s head feels strangely empty after Voltron, but he feels a bit more comfortable in his own head (well, Red’s still there, but the Lion is easier to ignore than the others) and easily welcomes the tiredness of after-battle.

Keith is the last one to exit his lion, the others waiting for him outside. He walks up to them with a smile on his face and Shiro can’t help but smack his shoulder. The smack seems to surprise Keith and the man jolts towards, shooting Shiro with a glare. There’s no real intent behind it, except for a small promise of kisses when they get to a more private area. Shiro’s stomach tingles pleasantly.

“Ahhh”, Keith sighs deeply, most of the others joining in. “We did it!” 

“How did we do it?” Shiro can’t help but wonder, removing his helmet and letting the layer of sweat along his face disappear into the cold air. 

“I was just, like, screaming the whole time. Maybe that did it”, Hunk jokes, trying to get Pidge to join in, but the small guy looks miserable. 

“We’re not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father”, Shiro comforts him, placing his human hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Wherever they are, I know they’d be proud of you.”

The smile Pidge gives Shiro might just make all this worth it.

“We won the battle, but the war has only just begun”, Allura speaks, but even her prophecies of destruction will not be enough to take down the paladins’ good mood. “I’m afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these lions.”

“Good thing you paladins know what you’re doing”, Coran muses. “You’re going to have to form Voltron again and again.”

“Wait, what?” Hunk groans, leaning forward. 

“We barely survived forming Voltron this one time”, Lance says, sounding sceptical. 

“And you only had to fight one ship!” Coran chuckles. “Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It’s not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe.” 

Keith sighs behind them, rubbing the back if his head. “Coran, Allura, you’re both right.”

The man holds a moment of very threatening silence. “But then again, Defenders of the Universe… has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *seductively raises eyebrows* Black Paladin Keith, Red Paladin Shiro, bet you didn't see that one coming ;)


	6. NOTICE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi

I feel like you guys deserve a bit of an explanation about two things: Why I haven't been updating this fic and why it's being discontinued :I

So, I haven't updated since what, February?

It's due to multiple reasons, from not having time to just not having the passion to do basically anything Voltron related. I've kind of outgrown the fandom, moved on to other projects and stuff. 

I was planning on picking it up again during quarantine, but then I got into a big fight with my dad and my stepmom. Due to this, I lost access to a Netflix account among other things. This argument is, still, yet to be settled and I doubt I will be getting those Netflix sign-in's back anytime soon, which makes writing anything like this a LOT harder. 

Due to this, I will be discontinuing this fic and leaving it incomplete, sorry about that! 

THANK YOU, for reading, giving me kudos and commenting. The amount of feedback from both this and my other Voltron fics have kept me motivated in writing just in general. Thank you so much guys :')

-tiredofthisbs

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback! Comments! Wishes on what you want to happen in the future, guesses on what I have decided to change and what not! Please, anything, everything, send it my way and I will be delighted to read it!


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